Mr. Frank Callanan:

In answer to Senator Mullen's query, I had no involvement or input into the drafting of the Bill. On Cosma v. the Minister for Justice and Equality about which a question was asked, that is for an entirely different statutory purpose as it is an application of the Attorney General and X judgment. It is very difficult to see how an application could somehow retroactively modify the judgment that was being applied.

As to whether there is an obligation to legislate for X, the short answer is "Yes". It is true that the European Court of Human Rights in the A, B and C v. Ireland case did not specifically state that legislation was required but it is difficult ti see what else arises in an Irish context. If one wants to think about regulation, one is looking, as Mrs. Justice McGuinness stated, at some sort of enabling legislation, followed presumably by the Minister, Deputy Reilly, making regulations. I imagine it would lead to political uproar if the enabling legislation was passed and it would be subject to a different set of constitutional objections.

In the Tysiąc v. Poland judgment - in case this is where Professor Binchy is suggesting we should be going - the attempt by the Polish Government to rely on pure medical regulation or whatever guidelines were in place for the organisation representing the medical profession was a failure.