EU treaty to go before Oireachtas Committee

The new European inter-governmental treaty is to come before an Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs today.

There will be cross-party discussion on the agreement which 25 of the member states signed up to on Monday night.

Yesterday, a group of TDs said they plan to petition the President to get him to force the Government to hold a referendum on the treaty.

Meanwhile, the Government is still insisting that it is awaiting legal advice from the Attorney General, after media reports that the Treaty had been specifically designed to minimise the need to go to the Irish people for a decision.