Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My thanks to the deputations for their submissions and presentations. They are very much appreciated. The presentation from the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission sets out the need for clarity in respect of emergency legislation. In other words, IHREC is more or less talking about having a structure in place in future.

What kind of structure is envisaged? For argument's sake, let us suppose we have another challenge four or five years hence, although hopefully not, in a totally different context in which emergency legislation would again be required, what type of structure should be established to deal with that? For example, one of the issues I raised earlier this morning is that in Australia an emergency Cabinet was formed consisting of the Prime Minister and premiers from the six individual states together with some other individuals. That was set up to deal with this issue. I am wondering about the Irish context. In fairness, over the years the courts have been instrumental in providing checks in respect of legislation and we have various other checks as well. For example, the President can refuse to sign legislation and refer it to the Supreme Court. Is the witness saying some further structures should be put in place for dealing with emergency legislation should another emergency arise in the future?