The duty of small countries is to protect institutions. The hardest time to do so is when the institutions are threatened. The institutions that should matter to Ireland are the UN, the EU and the world judicial bodies that we are attempting to put in place to develop an international system of justice, which will ensure law is applied and works in this State. That is what our Government should have done. The fundamental flaw in its approach is its equivocation about law. The Government will not say whether, in its judgment, this action is legal.