Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Government's record of acting on recommendations of that particular committee has been good I would argue and most of the more significant proposals have been acted upon. The recommendations involving a constitutional amendment that were acted upon include the abolition of reference to the death penalty, the abortion question and the local government recognition issue; the judicial oversight issue was not passed by the Dáil. Other recommendations acted upon which did not require a constitutional amendment include the conduct of referenda and the scrutiny of EU business. I do not believe that any of the work of the committee on the Constitution was wasted; even if some recommendations were not acted upon immediately, the work of the committee provides a very firm basis for consideration of many issues involving a constitutional change into the future. These are also points to be made in this context.

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