Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will make a brief point in response to one of the assertions of the Minister where he quite rightly says this House should not be bound to the views of any given set of experts, whether it be the Bar Council, the Law Library, former members of the Judiciary even or the pre-legislative scrutiny of a committee of these Houses. It is ultimately, of course, for the Dáil to make a determination in respect of laws, but there has to be logic to it. The question I was asking the Minister was that all of these bodies are on one side saying this is a very bad idea, the Minister is on the other side saying he is moving ahead on this basis in line with his predecessor's intention, but he has not said on what basis he is doing that. The Minister has given some arguments but, frankly, I do not think any of them stack up. Generally speaking, a Minister will find someone, some entity or stakeholder, to say they think this is a good idea. Where did this come from? Does the Minister know what the origins of this was? Perhaps that would give us a little more clarity to understand. From my perspective, this is the pivotal part of the debate. If the Minister proceeds as he indicates, we will be opposing the Bill. It is as fundamental as that.

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