Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

It does not require a referendum. The Department is proceeding on the basis of what we set out. Considerable work was done in the Office of the Attorney General, the office of the Minister of State with responsibility for children and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in June, July, August and September. Following an enormous amount of thought and action, meetings took place about how to take this forward. A great deal of information was disseminated. That process was concluded at Government level in October and I announced it at the beginning of November. In the three months since then, the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, has been engaged in extensive discussions with an enormous range of organisations. The Minister of State will be glad to outline the details of that consultation to the House if a Deputy asks him a question about it. We are trying to make progress on an issue that is seen as extremely important.

Like every issue, this issue has implications. It may be that what was said in the first place needs to be extended. When we consider in the cold light of day what needs to be done and how it can best be done, the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, will be ready and willing to do that on behalf of the Government. He is already engaging with the political parties in that regard. If the Government can agree on that and move forward, it is ready to do so. If we cannot get agreement on the matter, we will not get involved in a row about it. It will have to be dealt with in due course. We have acted in very good faith throughout this process with all of the groups — a substantial number of organisations have been involved. I refer not only to the children's non-governmental organisations, which have been very active, but also to the other bodies which were calling on us to take action in this area. They have been supporting our moves and engaging with the Minister of State, as have many other people. There are right-wing and left-wing views on this issue, as there are on all issues. We have to understand that. We will proceed if we can get political agreement. If we cannot get such agreement, we will be unable to make progress. I think that is a reasonable position.

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