Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

-----and with the best advice available from the Attorney General. I can assure the House that it is impossible for the Legislature through legislation to rewrite contracts entered into freely by two individual parties previously. We are more than willing, however, in a short space of time, if there are relevant and legally sound proposals to come forward from the working group or, indeed, any other quarter, to try to address some of the ills of our economic situation, particularly in the retail sector, which we all understand. We are practising politicians and realise there are difficulties out there but I am not in the business of hoodwinking people.

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