Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

——all of the independent procedures, and all of the appeal procedures. If one were to do that, one would bring down chaos on top of one.

It may be crude to prescribe a quarter of a sentence off but it works. Before anybody comes up with a theory about this, let us remember what was unfairly attributed to Garret FitzGerald, when he is reputed to have said, "That is all right in practice, but would it work in theory?". I remind the House that this is what one is likely to do here if one starts talking about changing the law. Nobody will do it. In the unlikely event that either Deputy Jim O'Keeffe or Deputy Howlin will stand where I am standing in a few months time, neither of them will do it, but they will have told people they would attempt it.

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