Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

There may be an IGC treaty or there may not; we do not know about these things. In An Agreed Programme for Government I have an undertaking to face up to this issue, if necessary on a constitutional basis. I ask this House in all reasonableness, what other day in the life of the Government, given that we are now between 40% and 50% through the life of the Government, could I say before the next general election would be the day on which I would get a representative turn out of the Irish people at a polling station. The answer to that is there is no other day.

This is not a racist proposal; this is not a proposal that in any way damages, invalidates or subverts the settlement in the Belfast Agreement. This is a minimalist proposal to give back to this House and the other House the right to debate exactly and to fine tune the legislative controls over an area which can be and is being abused. It is a matter for this House to trust itself. It is a matter of asking the Irish electorate to trust their politicians. Sometimes that is a difficult request to make because of the coruscating cynicism about elected politicians. I believe it is in the two Houses of the Oireachtas that these decisions should be made and I believe that the Irish people understand very clearly that the decision should be for these two Houses.

I welcome the Fine Gael Party's view that at least if this matter goes to the people, they will support a "Yes" vote because they trust the two Houses of the Oireachtas to do the work of legislating which was their function until 1999 and which, inadvertently for the most part, slipped out of their grasp and on to the constitutional plane in a way that denied me the opportunity to deal with it on a legislative basis.

I thank the House from the bottom of my heart for a constructive debate. I will say no more than that it contrasts with the treatment I received elsewhere. At least I was heard today and was not shouted down at the beginning, middle and end of my speech, as I was in another place. The House has done itself proud and I am glad we have not required a guillotine.