Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----as well as trying to encourage, cajole and convince the UK Government not to proceed with that legislation. I stand over that approach because if we have to take a harder line, we can at least demonstrate that we exhausted all other options before taking that line. That was the right approach for lots of different reasons. We will have to make a decision on whether or not we will take an interstate case before 15 January. The Attorney General's advice was clear on that. We will make that decision before 15 January.

The Tánaiste and I have had some meetings with the Attorney General and others to work out the next steps but, obviously, any decision has to go to Cabinet before it can be announced in the House.

One thing I would say to the Deputy, which is a sad truth, is that he may believe that by taking an interstate case the UK Government will back down. I am not sure if that is the case and it might in fact play into the hands of people in British politics who would see this as another reason for them to withdraw entirely from the European Convention on Human Rights and we have to bear that in mind too.

See this speech in context