Dr. Laura Cahillane:

I will try to give an explanation in response to the points made by Deputy Brophy on the deletion-versus-replacement conundrum. Deputy O'Callaghan asked the Minister why we could not just replace it with a symbolic provision. He also asked what the risk would be in doing this. The Minister referred to legal advice but has refused to publish it. It is most likely that the Attorney General would have said that one cannot write off a constitutional provision. It has been useless in law because no rights have ever flowed from it, nor any legislation passed as a result of it. In the Sinnott case, Mr. Justice Geoghegan said that, in an appropriate situation, a woman could claim a breach of her rights under Article 41.2, which indicates that it is not closed off forever. A replacement provision could have the same effect, which could be good or bad depending on one's point of view, but we should not be afraid of amending the Constitution simply because we are not quite sure what a court will say in 20, 30 or 50 years' time.