Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move motion No. 1:

That, having regard to the decision of the Committee not to retain Article 40.3.3° in full, the Committee recommend its repeal simpliciter.

I will not speak at length on my motion as we have a lot of votes to get through. We have had extensive discussion with our legal adviser, and subsequently in public session, on the different options in terms of the types of wording that should be put before the people by way of referendum. It is my view, and I think the view of others on this committee, that repeal simpliciteris the most clear way of dealing with the issue. It is already the responsibility of the Legislature to legislate and, therefore, it is not necessary to replace the wording. The Citizens' Assembly has recommended, that the replacement wording be that the Legislature would legislate and to put that into the Constitution. I think that would be confusing, it is unnecessary and all of the legal advice has suggested the same. Putting any other kind of wording back into the Constitution would simply brings us back to what I view as an inappropriate dealing with the issue by way of the Constitution. I feel that it should be dealt with by legislation. I propose that we recommend repeal simpliciteras the wording to go before the people.