Ms Justice Mary Laffoy:

I am quite sure this committee will be getting legal advice. So many questions have been raised about the question of repeal simpliciter, amendment and so forth that I believe the committee should get its own legal advice. My own view is that if there was repeal simpliciter, the 2013 Act, of which I know the members had some input into, would still be in place but, say, the Oireachtas repealed the 2013 Act and there was no regulation at all, which I am quite sure nobody would want, in that situation the pre-1983 scenario would be revived and there has to be an element of uncertainty about the effect of that. There may be different views on this but the clearest approach is to repeal Article 40.3.3⁰and give the Oireachtas power to legislate. I may be wrong, but I believe that would bring the most certainty. I would strongly recommend that the committee gets legal advice on that topic in particular.