First, I thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for asking the Government to bring forward the necessary documentation. I hope it will comply with your request, seeing that it has ignored everybody else in this premier forum.
Tá ceist agam faoi thuarascálacha an Coinbhinsiúin ar an mBunreacht. There are four outstanding reports from the Constitutional Convention that have yet to be debated in the Dáil. The Government is in clear breach of the timetable it set for them. Today we were to have a debate on voting rights, but that matter has been put off. In March the Taoiseach told me that all of these matters had been completed by the relevant Departments. Given the overwhelming vote last Friday, including the number of people who had travelled home to vote, will he now move to implement the proposal of the Constitutional Convention that voting rights in presidential elections be extended to citizens living outside the State, including in the North?
While the Taoiseach has probably not heard this, the English Queen in her speech a short time ago confirmed the British Government's plans to bring forward proposals for a British Bill of Rights which would displace the European Convention on Human Rights and repeal the Human Rights Act. The programme for Government stated the Government was entirely committed to full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. The measure the British Government has noted today as being due to be brought forward will breach the structure of the Agreement. In addition, the in-out referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union which was also announced today will cause profound difficulties for people living on this island. Any lessening of human rights law, especially the repeal of the Human Rights Act, will undermine an agreement which is an international treaty and of which the Taoiseach is co-equal guarantor. I am asking the Taoiseach to make clear the Government's opposition to any repeal of the Human Rights Act when he meets the British Prime Minister next month.
