I do not need one. On 29 April, the Taoiseach will go to the European Council meeting and the guidelines for the negotiations with Britain on Brexit will be agreed. We have raised with the Taoiseach our deep concern about the guidelines, particularly Article 11 which is weak, vague and certainly insufficient. It does not provide the negotiating platform necessary to protect the interests of Ireland North and South.

I am disappointed that time has not been made available for a debate in advance of the Taoiseach's attendance at that meeting. I asked him before about his willingness to accept an amendment to Article 11 and to argue for that. That is what I believe he should be doing. Sinn Féin has formulated a motion in the wording that we believe is necessary to provide us with the kind of protection that the Government, or whoever is Taoiseach, will need to seek in respect of Ireland. Is the Taoiseach willing to accept a proposition for such an amendment to Article 11 to strengthen our position and his position as our negotiator?

I call the Taoiseach.

A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, on the same issue and the same matter, the European Council meeting-----

I have to give you permission, Deputy Doherty. You cannot take the liberty because you are well down the list, but providing you make it a very short supplementary-----

The Leas-Cheann Comhairle can correct me if I am wrong, but I understand that it is accepted practice that if a question is on the same issue-----

I was not to know that.

I informed you that it is on the same issue.

Okay, proceed.

The European Council meeting on 29 April is one of the most important such meetings that any Taoiseach will have attended. The fact that Members of this House will not have pre-statements before the Council meeting, which has been standard practice, is an affront. The Taoiseach talks about democracy but this is an affront to democracy. Those statements need to take place on Thursday. Yesterday I presented the Taoiseach with a letter from Deputy Gerry Adams which included our motion.

We have now seen the European Council's draft guidelines, so it is clear to us that whatever initiatives were involved from the Irish Government they have failed. The Taoiseach has failed to secure a veto or the position of this Dáil which is to have a special, designated status within the EU for the North of Ireland. It is of the utmost importance that we should have that discussion so that the Taoiseach is better informed before he goes to that Council meeting about the views of this Parliament in terms of the negotiating stance he has to take.

Will the Taoiseach confirm that we will have pre-European Council statements, as we have had for every single European Council meeting heretofore? We all agree that this is the most important such meeting the Taoiseach will have attended during his time as Taoiseach.

Just in case anybody might think that it is constituency favouritism, I am drawing on convention.

I introduced the situation whereby we have always had statements both before European Council meetings and after them. The meeting on 29 April is not a meeting of the European Council. It is a meeting of 27 members of the European Council. One member is missing, that is, Britain.

That is technical.

Technical or not, it is not a European Council meeting. It is a meeting of 27 countries who happen to be members of the European Council. I am not going to be petty about this. If the House wants to have a discussion on the pre-April 29 situation I am quite happy to do that. I disagree fundamentally with Deputy Doherty, however, because the priorities we have set as a Government for Northern Ireland are all included in the letter from the British Prime Minister. They are specifically referred to in the paper from the European Parliament and are also referred to individually in the paper from the European Council's President, Mr. Tusk.

There are a number of meetings taking place over the next week to ten days. We have submitted some further wording in respect of the Good Friday Agreement, what it means and how important that is to the priorities we have already set out. It is a matter for the House or the Business Committee and I am sure the Chief Whip will oblige. If they want to have statements before the meeting of the 27 member states, I do not mind.

Deputies have been pretty well briefed on this matter and there is absolutely no shortage of material. We are very different from the Gibraltar case, when Deputy Doherty talks about vetoes.

They have one; we do not.

Any change in the status of Gibraltar is a matter between Spain and the United Kingdom. It is nothing to do with the European Union. We have an international and legally binding agreement in respect of Northern Ireland

It is also a bilateral agreement.

We want an opportunity to be able to implement that in full and to have it reflected in the negotiated outcome of the European Council.

The Taoiseach lectured us on democracy.

That is democracy.

In this democracy, the Dáil has spoken.

Deputy, please. I call An Teachta Brendan Howlin.

Can I ask-----

No, the Deputy cannot.

Can I ask if the Taoiseach's office has convened the group that allows for statements to take place tomorrow?

No. There are no supplementaries.

The idea that there would be no statements before this European Council meeting is ridiculous.

That is a matter for the Taoiseach to decide. The Taoiseach has responded.

I accept that the Taoiseach is open to that.

The Taoiseach has responded. Let the Whips discuss that.