Professor William Binchy:

I believe it to be a matter of fact. I am not a sociologist. I have not carried out the empirical tests. That is a matter for somebody who is not, as it were, coming to this issue from a value position to go and do the count. The wider sociological question of the impact of the amendment on a society - the impact of any legal framework on a society - is a highly difficult and subtle thing to actually work out. I would have to say that. Broadly speaking, however, I agree with Senator Mullen, as I think he would agree with me, that the issues do not depend on that fact one way or another.