Mr. Conor O'Neill:

It is a credit to the committee members that we have spent so much time going over somewhat dense legal principles as they are important. The most important thing is to recognise that the decision the committee has to make on the report, and the decision the Government has to make on what it accepts from it, are political decisions. It is not just a legal one. If we were coming in here on a song and a prayer and asking the committee to do something that we know was unlawful, the committee members could say that they cannot do it. The bar that needs to be met is there is a strong and arguable case that the services element of the Bill is doable. I would respectfully ask the committee to not defer to different sets of experts, some of whom might say yes and some who might say no. My point is we should test it. We take the Tánaiste at his word when he says there is no policy difference. If there is no policy difference and we recognise the obligation - the officials stated yesterday that trade means goods and services - we should test the limit of the public policy derogation. The only body that can definitively say whether the Department's more cautious view, the more expansive view of the experts to whom Mr. Liston referred or the Attorney General's view that might come in the middle is right is the European courts. We have a massive opportunity to not only defend our own legislation but do a service to the rest of the European Union by clarifying that point. That is the key political point. It is not waiting to see what the Attorney General says, nor will we disregard his advice.