I move:—
In line 19 to delete the words "five years" and substitute in inverted commas the words "six years or such shorter period as may be fixed by legislation."
I move this amendment because, while it is thought that the normal lifespan of Parliament should be five years, and while the intention is to fix it at five years in the Electoral Act, as Deputy Johnson and others pointed out on the Second Reading of this Bill, circumstances might arise which would make it desirable to prolong the lifetime of Parliament. In such a set of circumstances it would be more easy to amend the ordinary law of the country than to proceed by way of amendment of the Constitution. For that reason, I ask the Dáil to agree that the constitutional maximum should be fixed not at five years, which, in our view, ought to be the normal period of the life of Parliament, but at the longer period of six years, on the understanding that five years is what will be fixed by law.