Alex White (Labour)

I may be responsible for taking us down the road of that perhaps not significantly helpful analogy as between the Irish and English languages if an issue arises in terms of what the Constitution means. The point we are making in this amendment is a somewhat narrower one, that if one refers to the Hague Convention in the interpretation section of the Bill, it states:

"Hague Convention" means the Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption, 1993, the text [I suggest, "in the English language"] of which, subjection to subsection (3), is set out for convenience...

It is merely for the sake of completeness. Schedule 2 acknowledges "both texts being equally authentic". We are incorporating the convention into Irish law by way of this legislation.

In the last page of the Bill, it states that both texts are equally authentic. That is fine, nobody disagrees with that. All the amendment does is state that when we speak about the Hague Convention, we mean the convention set out in Schedule 2 in English. It also exists in French and if anybody wants to refer to it in French, he or she can go off and refer to it in French, take it out of the library or whatever. Simply for the sake of completeness, all it states is that what one will see in Schedule 2 is the English language version of it.