Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

In my experience, such an allegation is absolutely without justification. Such attacks on civil servants should not be made.

I am aware that this matter has been discussed for some time. The meeting with the masters of the maternity hospitals may have been a catalyst for action, but it certainly did not represent the beginning of the discussion. It is obvious that there is a Northern dimension to the issue, but nobody raised the issue with me when I met representatives of all the Northern parties during two visits there in the past three or four days. The manner in which it is proposed to address the matter completely protects what was done in the Good Friday Agreement, which, of course, was introduced in substitution for the State's assertion, at least at a theoretical level, of jurisdiction over the entire island. This assertion meant that the people of the island were entitled to be part of the Irish nation. We can continue to be proud of that and I do not think it will be impinged on in any way by this change. We await the details of the referendum Bill to judge the matter further. It is also important that we bear in mind the diaspora dimension.