Dr. Orla Kelleher:

I will come in on the question of whether constitutional environmental rights might be subject to abuse.

A really important element of that is how they are designed and interpreted. That is why Dr. Dobbs and I are emphasising strongly the need for an expert group to be involved in designing the particular wording that will be put in a referendum. In the article I wrote that I shared with the committee, I referred to the excellent work of Rachael Walsh, who published an article in the Dublin University Law Journalsetting out the ability that is already there to balance rights. That is what will happen if there are constitutional environmental rights; they will be balanced against other existing rights. Professor Walsh refers in that context to the ability to balance property rights. There already are qualifiers there in respect of the common good. The risk in this regard is quite limited, depending on how the rights are designed and interpreted.