Eugene Regan (Fine Gael)

Seán Lemass, on 21 March 1928 in the Dáil said Fianna Fáil was a slightly constitutional party and once again the party lives up to its slightly constitutional reputation. On the one hand it says it has a constitutional imperative to introduce a law on blasphemy which nobody wanted and yet at the same time it could subvert the Constitution and the democratic process by refusing to hold by-elections which everybody wanted. The Green Party has been complicit in this as it voted down two motions on moving writes for the by-election, notwithstanding its PR stunt yesterday in jumping the gun and calling for an immediate by-election in Donegal South-West.

In one respect I welcome the appeal to the Supreme Court because it would give a definitive constitutional decision and direction on this point. Without a Supreme Court decision the Government simply will not get the message that it cannot, beyond a reasonable period of time, refuse to hold by-elections. In its recent report the Joint Committee on the Constitution suggested unanimously that a six month period should be enshrined for holding by-elections.

I wish to refer to another constitutional matter which is before the courts and which has been decided, namely, the NAMA case. The courts interpret the law and will not pass judgment on the merits of the NAMA Act. However, I question whether Members of this House and the Lower House fully realised when they proposed and supported the NAMA Act that they were signing up to a Soviet Union-style expropriation of profitable business enterprises for reasons of State. The European Commission did not sign up to that either in its decision. It is a matter of public interest and EU law, and my motivation in raising the matter is because it is a matter of public interest.