Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for fantastic presentations this morning. It goes without saying that this is a very complex situation. It definitely needs to be investigated a lot more. I particularly commend Dr. Cahillane on her clear and useful presentation. I have a couple of short questions. First, the Minister said that a replacement clause could have unpredictable legal consequences. Is that not always the case with anything in the Constitution? We can never say for certain how the courts might interpret something. By having a Constitution in the first place we accept that the courts might limit the capacity of the Oireachtas.

I have a second related question. The Constitution can be useful in setting a floor of basic rights below which government and policy cannot go. I refer to the decision on asylum seekers' right to work, which also was raised by the commission. In that case, the Supreme Court did not impose a huge positive obligation on the State but held that asylum seekers should have a bare minimum of access to work. Could we see this in the same way, that is, as requiring a basic level of support for care work on the part of the State rather than a huge list of cases against the State that would vastly change the social welfare budget? Perhaps other people can respond to that point also. I have a further question but I will return to it in a second.