While I do not like to knock the media, I agree with Senator Dardis. There is a certain laziness in suggesting that we are not up to speed. This can be shown to be wrong by any objective appraisal of the facts and it is so wrong that it is offensive. Senator Dardis is correct in saying Article 1.1 makes reference to a federal basis. That is all it does. When the first 16 articles were published, I said people should not be over-excited by this article because it was not describing a federal constitution. Members will be aware of an interesting parallel debate in Dáil Éireann when Bunreacht na hÉireann was introduced. When Mr. de Valera was asked the reason the Constitution did not state that Ireland was a republic, he took out the dictionary and defined the word "republic". He said that if one brought an elephant or a horse into the House, one would not need to hang a label around its neck.