John Gilroy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I understand that but we should not legislate to refer this to a constitutional convention because doing so would be interfering with the autonomy of the convention. We would be obliging it to consider something it may feel is not appropriate. The Senators opposite may shake their heads but my remarks comprise a genuine attempt to address the concerns that arise. If we want to start slagging each other across the floor, that is fine, but Senator Thomas Byrne and I sat down this morning and had a long chat about this, as he will confirm. We entered into our conversation in a spirit of trying to seek a resolution.

Instead of having to legislate for sending this to a constitutional convention-type organisation, perhaps the Minister, as a member of the Cabinet, could give some sort of non-legislative commitment to consider doing so. That might address everyone's problem instead of tying up our institutions by some form of what would necessarily be tightly scripted legislation. It is not appropriate to send the matter to the forum under section 7, nor is it appropriate to legislate for sending it to the Constitutional Convention. However, the matter could be considered by the Cabinet. Perhaps the Minister will commit to this and, if he feels it is appropriate, the matter could be referred, in non-legislative way, to the Constitutional Convention.