Dr. Niall Muldoon:

We would be delighted were the committee in a position to support that concept. Scotland brought in a law last July, just short of 12 months ago. It needed cross-party unanimity to ensure it happened and that is what we need to do. This committee could take a lead in that regard in ensuring we all see the value of having this underpinning all the work we do across the Civil Service. Were the committee in a position to support that and make recommendations in that way, it would greatly support us because it would mean we would have a strong basis within the Oireachtas to help us push forward with that. Even with unanimity, it will take five or six years to get the Bill through. The idea would be to create a Bill that would just incorporate every single piece of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into domestic law and that would be the end of that, as opposed to the Government currently saying that it will update each piece of law separately and 33 years later it has not done it.