Given Ireland's prominent role in the life sciences and pharmaceutical sectors, where nearly 90% of employees in these fields are engaged in patent medicine related work, the establishment of the EU unified patent court is poised to significantly benefit this country. Recognising this, the Government has expressed its intention to participate in the unitary patent system and the unified patent court. However, this necessitates an amendment to the Constitution. Is the Government still committed to the timeline the Taoiseach provided earlier this year of holding a referendum in conjunction with the European elections next June? Will the Taoiseach further commit to submitting a bid for Ireland to host a central division of the unified patent court, thereby capitalising on the potential economic advantages to the country?

That commitment stands and the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Coveney, is working on it at the moment, with a view to having the referendum concurrent with the local and European elections.

The court is up and running and we are keen that Ireland be part of it. I will have to come back to the Deputy on the issue of the central division. My understanding when I was Minister, which is nearly a year ago now, was that there were only going to be three and they had already been assigned. I could be out of date on that, however, so I will come back to the Deputy directly.