Ms Mary O'Toole:

It would seem that if it was decided to hold a referendum and a Bill was published advising the people of what the Government had in mind, it would be political suicide not to go along with that if it were passed. That is not a legal view. We can have a provision in the Constitution which requires legislation and so on. Obviously, the courts would not like to impinge on any separation of power and so on. I would have thought there would be enormous political pressure. This is a political, rather than legal, question because it seems to me that politically it would simply not be acceptable to leave a vacuum.

There would not be a total vacuum. If there was repeal and an enabling provision allowing the Oireachtas to-----