Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To pick up briefly on the issue, there is no prohibition on sharing the Attorney General's advice, although I know it is not standard practice. There is a massive gap between sharing the full advice and giving us one line indicating that there is a constitutional context which prevents something happening. As I initially outlined, there is strong legal opinion on the other side; this is nothing to do with same-sex marriage but the validity of a marriage depends on the circumstances existing at the time. There is much case law to back this up, and at the very least we should get a paper from the Department as part of these discussions. I am talking about setting out the main arguments or cases that are being referred to, including legal precedent that backs up the arguments. It is difficult for us to evaluate the thought being put into this by the Department if all we are being told is that it is considering the constitutional context. We need more meat than that to be able to do our job, and when the legislation comes before the committee we will be picking through amendments, so how are we supposed to make an informed judgment on the arguments if we have not heard them?