Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is important that we stick as closely as possible to what we told the people when the referendum was put before them and on which they voted. Deviation from that may lead us into a situation whereby we, the committee and the Oireachtas, may well be accused of not adhering to the lines set down by the people in the referendum. There are various pros and cons and merit and demerit to the amendments. What if it transpired that we now propose to deviate from what we told the people in the public heads of Bill? People had an opportunity to vote on this matter, they did so and came to a resounding decision. It is important that they did so on the basis of the information put before them. We should stick to the text as it is, as closely as possible, and should it transpire at a later stage that somebody said that it does not affect what we are trying to do, then we can examine it.

The word "regulation" is important. It was already part of the text of the referendum. If we change that now, in three or four days, we could find ourselves with a totally different Bill from the one to which people gave tentative approval in the referendum. I stand by what the referendum indicated and the published heads of Bill at that time.