Mr. Gerard Keown:

I mentioned that there had been contact. That contact was at official level. It was to explain the intent and purpose of the draft Bill being prepared. I did not mention the names of the countries that had engaged because they approached us privately and so we have shared that information. It was a number of EU member states and it is for them to decide if they will act upon the information we have given them.

As the Tánaiste said, we encourage as many EU member states as possible to give positive consideration to doing something similar to the Bill we have before us.