Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

All cases under section 1 and some under section 2. The area I pointed out this morning relates to the other issue. There might be some cases under section 2, but we do not know the position on that section. There is an issue of honest belief. There are other issues as well. I did not get the chance to inform Deputy Rabbitte this morning but we are proposing a parliamentary committee which will call relevant persons as necessary. The key people — Government, Ministers and Opposition spokespersons — must use the time between now and the autumn to sit down and deal with some of the related issues. I am anxious to make progress on the establishment of the committee, which will be a small committee, to deal with the issues. We have done a lot of work in the past three or four weeks. Pending the final detailed case of the Supreme Court the issue should be addressed. The Government is anxious to set up a parliamentary committee to reach consensus on these issues and deal with them.

The situation cannot be left as it stands. The Supreme Court has made its judgment to strike down the Act and cases are pending on the other section of the Act, which will come up in due course. There is not an immediate difficulty because the cases in question are the subject of other charges. We should reflect on the position and not leave it for the whole summer. We will not have completed it by the end of September but we should try to do so as early as possible in the autumn. We are anxious to progress the matter as quickly as possible.

See this speech in context