Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I was not the only person who had doubts on the matter. The Department of Justice, as it then was, also saw the implications in this area. For completeness, I must say that my constituency colleague, Deputy Quinn, who is here today, wrote to the Taoiseach raising the issue. One of the options canvassed by Deputy Quinn in his letter was a balancing amendment to Article 9 of the Constitution which he stated would not impinge on the Good Friday Agreement. As he put it, "On the grounds that it would not require any change to the wording at Castle Buildings, there would be no question of reopening the concluded talks process." A number of people saw this difficulty at the time.

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