Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

The wording is taken from the final Act of the diplomatic conference which states, "The said Convention and Protocol have been opened for signature at Cape Town this day". As there is no time limit after which states may not accede to the convention, it is not clear when the convention and protocol could be said to be done. A contract can be said to be done when all relevant parties have signed it but in this case parties will continue to add their signatures to it. That is the reason we have inserted the phrase in the Bill.

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