Vol. 487 No. 5
80 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the steps, if any, that are being taken to fully incorporate the United Nations and the European Conventions on Human Rights into Irish law; the constitutional implications, if any, that have been identified, and, if so, the way in which they are being dealt with. [3129/98]
With regard to the implementation in Ireland of the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, it has been the view of successive Irish Governments that rights guaranteed under the Constitution, relevant legislation and common law rights in Ireland fully correspond to, and in places exceed, those available through the convention. These rights are, of course, justiciable in our domestic courts. I should point out that while we are committed to equivalence between the human rights regimes North and South, this does not mean that precisely identical mechanisms have to be in place in the two jurisdictions.
However, we are prepared to examine actively proposals for incorporation if it appears that this would be necessary to ensure the equivalence we seek between human rights regimes in the North and the South. In this context, the Government has decided to ask the relevant Departments to look again at the various complex legal and practical issues, including those relating to the Constitution that would be involved in the incorporation of the European Convention into domestic legislation.
The Government has no plans to incorporate the UN Human Rights Covenants into domestic law.
