Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I thank the Taoiseach for an unusually comprehensive reply. It will bear reading. As he is aware, the Sullivan report listed seven different stages at which the Attorney General himself ought to have been briefed on the statutory rape issue. It only happened at one stage, namely, the initial stage of briefing counsel. We know the issues that derived from that. It is not a question of whether the case might have been defended differently. The issue is that the Attorney General is the law officer to the Government who is personally in attendance at Cabinet meetings and ought to be in a position on matters of legal, constitutional or public interest to advise the Government in that capacity.

The best way to question the Taoiseach on this matter is to ask him whether he is satisfied that adequate procedures are now in place to ensure the State cannot be taken unawares by a judgment of the Supreme Court in a case of the gravity of the statutory rape case. Will the Taoiseach indicate whether any of the key recommendations of the Sullivan report have not been implemented or whether a decision has been taken to exclude any one of the key recommendations and, if so, why?

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