Mr. John Dunne:

Because the balance is there in the wording, "shall endeavour". The word "shall" creates an obligation. The word "endeavour" creates a qualified obligation and, therefore, all one can do in that situation is bring it to the courts to have a light shone on it. Nine times out of ten, certainly in terms of socio-economic rights, the State will easily assert that it is endeavouring, even if it is not succeeding. It is a weak obligation.

My interest is in administrative law rather than in rights, but when I studied the Constitution, as far as I was concerned, the Constitution stopped at Article 44. Article 45 was a nice little postscript. It was not part of it at all. From that point of view, it should be in the Constitution proper. As somebody said earlier, the ultimate logic of the alternative position is why do we not delete all human rights because they are all messy and awkward anyway.