Mr. Mike Allen:

In the sense that it is a sop, the speech the late Brian Lenihan made when he accepted the amendment and the book written by the current Attorney General which analyses the amendment suggest it was not a sop, that it is just something that has not been used or mobilised. If it does not work and the Oireachtas wants the law to be different, it has to change it. If we are not going to get a social dividend under the current legislation and the Oireachtas, or public representatives, want a public dividend, as they should, the Oireachtas should change the law urgently.