In view of the country's well-established international reputation in the life sciences and pharmaceutical sectors and with almost 90% of staff employed in these industries working on patent medicines, the new EU Unified Patent Court will be of huge benefit to Ireland. However, a referendum is required for it to have jurisdictional powers. Will the Taoiseach give a commitment to run this referendum in tandem with the other referendum planned for November? Will he also give a commitment that Ireland will submit a bid to host a central division of the new EU Unified Patent Court in Ireland, which would provide a huge economic dividend to this country?

The EU Unified Patent Court is now up and running and we are keen for Ireland to be part of it. It requires a referendum and, as we all know, referendums in Ireland are not straightforward and can often lead to extraneous arguments being thrown into the mix and so on. We are keen to get it right and win it. It is a simple question. Do we want to join this court or not? The treaty is already operating. There is no question of renegotiation. We will have a referendum on it. We have not yet decided whether it will run concurrent with the other referendums in November or we will hold it next year, concurrent with the local and European elections. We will have it during the period of this Dáil and Government. We will have to join the court before we can make a bid for a central division. We will certainly have a local division. As I have said, it requires a referendum and referendums can go wrong. We are keen to ensure we get it right and it does not get turned into a referendum about something else by certain quarters. It will be in November or in the summer next year.