Batt O'Keeffe (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

This morning's report in The Irish Times stated that in 1998 the Labour Party asserted that an amendment to the citizens' provisions in Article 9 of the Constitution could be made without reopening the Good Friday Agreement talks process. All of us will know that is contrary to the hot air emitted from the Labour Party yesterday and in the past when it claimed that amending Article 9 runs the risk of damaging the Agreement. Interestingly also, in a letter to the Taoiseach, Deputy Quinn proposed that an amendment could be made to Article 9 to clarify the entitlement to be part of the Irish nation. That is exactly what the endorsement of this referendum will do and is in line with what the former leader of the Labour Party indicated at the time that he wanted. The Labour Party, with its change of leader, is now saying it does not agree with that because it does not have ten weeks or perhaps six months to deal with the issue.

See this speech in context