Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

Having listened to the Tánaiste's reply to a previous amendment, it is clear that this amendment would in effect emasculate the process. Explicit admission of liability obviously forecloses options. If an issue is not contested, one could argue that that is a de facto admission of liability, but effectively this is allowing people to play out a scenario on the assumption that for example, liability is accepted, with supposedly unclear results, and both sides then free to accept or reject the result. To go the route the Opposition wants would remove the flexibility and pragmatism and, as a result, effectively stymie the entire operation of the PIAB.