Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

If someone argues before the Supreme Court tomorrow that something is unconstitutional, and the Attorney General states it is constitutional and that we uphold the right of the Oireachtas to legislate in this fashion, he does not mean that he is binding the Government never to change the law. He is simply upholding the sovereignty of the Irish State and its institutions to have the law the way they want it, notwithstanding their adherence to the convention or, in the Supreme Court case, the provisions of the Constitution.

There is a profound difference between saying the Irish people are entitled to do something in their own good judgment because, under the Council of Europe convention, there is a margin of appreciation that individual countries can decide where they want to strike the balance, and coming out with Senator Norris's legal and logical non sequiter that if we have the right to do something, we must be bound at all times thereafter to do it. That is a nonsense.