David Norris (Independent)

Is the Minister of State suggesting that the Government will be churning out enormous amounts of legislation that conflict with the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights? I do not believe so. This is a completely artificial situation. If, by accident, such law was enacted, it would be very proper for an Irish court to strike it down.

I have nothing to fear from the European Convention on Human Rights. Ireland was one of the first signatories to it, the first state to have a case tried under it and Irish citizens have used it extensively since then. Why should we fear our legislation being brought into accord with it? That is our objective, so of what are we afraid?

Regarding the different models, the Minister of State tried to justify the model chosen by the Government and referred to the various bodies that gave evidence on this. The Government seems not to have listened to what it was told. Professor William Binchy recently criticised the indirect mode of incorporation used for its weaknesses, anomalies and drawbacks. In this regard, he is reiterating the views of the Irish Human Rights Commission, of which he is a member, the Bar Council and the Law Society as well as numerous NGOs. The Minister of State was coy about that matter, saying that the Government had consulted. It consulted, but it did not listen to those bodies.

Three models were given: the constitutional model; legislative incorporation; and this model, which was described by the bodies consulted as being unequivocally the worst. We headed unerringly for that model, which was brilliant. Even the phase used to describe it, "interpretative incorporation at a sub-constitutional level", gives one an idea of its nature.