Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have treated the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality with great seriousness. As the Deputy is aware, the Department held its own detailed one-day seminar on this particular issue some considerable time ago now. Some issues arise from the report, including issues relevant to the Department of Health, based on the approach taken to this issue by the World Health Organization. Consequently, it is important to receive the observations of the Department of Health on the report. I greatly appreciate the detailed response I received from the joint committee to the series of queries I raised and it should form part of the public record of the engagement on this issue that both the queries I raised and the Department's responses be published. I have written to the Chairman of the joint committee in proposing this and hopefully that will occur. There also are issues for the Attorney General's office to deal with. There is one particular issue, which is whether any constitutional difficulties could arise. It may be the case that they do not, but advice is needed as to whether constitutional issues could arise with regard to implementing aspects of the recommendations received.

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