Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I wish to clarify two issues. Deputy Rabbitte asked why I did not say on previous occasions that that issue was pending and I replied that the Cabinet had not cleared it. However, the Cabinet has done so now. Second, it is not pre-empting the committee, which is examining the criminal law aspects. The suggestion, which is not just mine as it has been uttered on other occasions over the past 14 years, is this is a far broader issue, which should examine maltreatment, the care of children, the treatment of children within the homes and a range of other issues. I said I would say nothing on the committee until it had reported.

On the substantive issue, to the best of my knowledge, the first time this came up was when Mrs. Justice Catherine McGuinness raised it in the Kilkenny case. Subsequently, the Constitution review group, which reported in 1996, gave us guidelines on what we should do. The issue then came up in the two reports in Europe and the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, has raised it a number of times over the past two or three years, including this year, when he said we would deal with that aspect.

I was careful the other day not to pre-empt the House or other interested parties because we must come to an agreed wording, which is not simple. I launched the report of the group that examined this on behalf of the Oireachtas last January. I stayed there some hours that night, as perhaps did the Deputy, because all the interested groups were present. There are plenty of different, diverging views on this issue and, therefore, it will not automatically be easy to agree the wording. However, I have asked the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, to work on consultation about the wording immediately. I do not want to comment on a date because we must get the agreed wording first.

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