Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

When I met the children's advocacy groups, they made the point that we should not have to go back and start the process all over again from scratch, that we should instead start from the point that the all-party Oireachtas committee had produced an agreed wording. With that wording and the Attorney General's views on a changed wording, it should be possible to get agreement on a formula of words that could be put to the people on the same date as the Presidential election. The same could apply to the issue of the abolition of the Seanad. Preparing a Bill dealing with the removal of articles from the Constitution and the implications for other articles in respect of the abolition of the Seanad is not as simple as it sounds. I have asked my Department to start work on this immediately and we will report progress.

On the Deputy's comment concerning the Diaspora and Northern Ireland representation, the convention will deal with recommendations in so far as the Constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann, is concerned. Obviously, there are issues that will have an impact in a cross-Border sense or in respect of the wider Diaspora. I do not have a fixed view on the constraints and either the terms of reference for or the membership of the convention. I will give consideration to the two points raised by the Deputy, although perhaps not in respect of the actual percentage. I accept the Constitution of the Twenty-six Counties has implications in many ways for cross-Border activities and so on. In that sense and in seeking to reach a view on the constraints and the terms of reference, we will give consideration to the two points raised by the Deputy.

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