Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

It is reprehensible that the Government should seek to do this. The Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, in the sixth report of the all-party committee, which made a number of important recommendations, said:

Measures should be taken to ensure that a Bill to amend the Constitution is fully debated by the Dáil. Given the importance of a constitutional amendment, every Deputy and every Senator should have the opportunity to express his or her views. The Bill therefore should be debated in principle and in detail by each House. To ensure this the committee considered whether a minimum period for the Oireachtas debate should be specified in the Constitution. The committee are aware that there can be occasions when the Government needs to act with great speed in relation to a proposal. Accordingly the committee does not recommend any constitutional change in this respect. However we recommend, that the Standing Orders of the Houses should be amended so as to embody a presumption that every TD and Senator will have sufficient opportunity to make whatever contribution he or she wishes to make.

Will the Taoiseach state what the issue of great speed is in this case? The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform hung his case on a meeting with the masters of the maternity hospitals in October 2002, which he misrepresented. The issue of great speed is, sadly, a resort to using a referendum on a sensitive matter to stoke up feelings, the result of which the Government thinks will redound to its advantage.

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