Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

One of the developments that occurred in the aftermath of the Sullivan report was the establishment of the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children. The committee, which was chaired by Deputy O'Rourke, reported in September 2008 and recommended that legislation to deal with so-called soft information should be introduced as a matter of urgency. Why has such legislation not yet been published? What is the Government's intention in respect of the legislation?

At the beginning of this year, the committee recommended that there should be a constitutional referendum on the rights of children and it published an agreed wording to be put to the people in such a referendum. What is the Government's position regarding the holding of a referendum on the rights of children?

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