Mr. Declan Smyth:

The short answer to that is "No". Our role in the legal division of the Department is to identify legal issues. The Attorney General, when he provided advice before Christmas, advised that there was a public policy exception in respect of goods and that if Senator Black's Bill were narrowed and limited to the prohibition of importing goods from settlements, that was a more defensible basis on which we could act having regard to EU law. As the Deputy knows, the programme for Government commits to introducing legislation to prohibit the importation of settlement goods and this scheme delivers on that commitment. Since the scheme has been prepared, the Tánaiste also asked us to look at the question of services. The Department has identified a certain number of legal issues that require consideration in relation to services and those are now with the Attorney General.