Ms Gr?inne Teggart:

The response I have had so far in meetings with the Department of Foreign Affairs has just been around the general options being considered. There has not been a firm commitment made, which is why we are grateful to have the opportunity today, through the committee, to make the call on the Department to commit to this. There should be a very clear message to the UK Government that if it proceeds with a unilateral election and if this Bill becomes law, this is the plan of action of the Department. I want to be clear that I very much welcome the unequivocal opposition to this from the Irish Government. We have seen that through a series of public statements and the calls for the UK Government to re-engage in the process.

That is all really welcome but there has to be a further plan because we are getting to the latter stages of the Bill's passage. Its Second Reading will take place in the House of Lords later this month, as we mentioned. Given how late in the day we are getting with the Bill, it is very important that the Irish Government put down a marker and signal it clearly to the UK Government. I hope that is something the Department will pick up and run with. As I said, we will be raising that through our ongoing engagement with officials and the Minister. When we have met with people around the UK's universal periodic review, UPR, people in the Irish Embassy and others, there is a very clear understanding that there is an expectation around a challenge of this nature, in recognition of the fact the parliamentary arithmetic is what it is and is not something we can change. If the UK Government wants to push this onto the Statute Book, the numbers are there to enable it to do so. This leads us to the inevitable question of a legal challenge. It will either be that the burden is felt solely by victims or the Irish Government can take the action we have outlined here today.