David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have an open mind on it and we are consulting with the Office of the Attorney General and the Parliamentary Counsel on this. I do not want to make matters worse by putting something like this in. We have to be very careful that we do it correctly. My personal view is that if we can we will but I have yet to be convinced and we need to tease out some of the issues I have indicated. I would like to see the results from the UK to see what happens there.Scotland is also having such a debate at present and I would like to see what it will come up with at the end of the process as well. That said, I have listened carefully to what Senators have said. I ask them to reflect on what I have said and the points I have made. I look forward to having a debate with Senators afterwards and some Senators have had discussions with officials in the Department on the issue as well. While I am very open on the issue, we need to be sure we do not allow any loopholes in the legislation or do anything to make things worse for people if we have a prescribed list. A technical issue also arises to prevent acceptance of this amendment now because it is not linked further down the Bill. However, we would need to come back on Report Stage to fix that, if the amendment were accepted.