asked the Minister for Justice whether he intends to change the law on capital punishment.

I stated in replies to similar questions on 13 December 1977, as recorded in the Official Reports, volume 302, column 1206 and 11 March 1980, volume 318, column 1720 that I had no proposals to put before the Government to change the present law in this matter. That position has not altered.

Execution by hanging is a particularly barbarous practice accepted generally as such by most civilised countries in western Europe and, while it is an issue which divides parties not only in the Dáil, would the Minister agree that the time has come for reconsideration of the desirability of retaining the power to carry out judicial murder by hanging——

A question, Deputy. That is a long statement.

Would the Minister agree that the time is right? It is about 20 years now since the last execution by hanging.

The Deputy's question is very specific. It is as to whether it is intended to change the law on capital punishment. The answer is no, I do not propose to change the present law or put any proposals before the Government regarding it. If changes were to come about I would have to put proposals to the Government. This I have not done and until such time as any proposals that would have been put to the Government would have been considered there would have been no public utterance on it from me.

Is it a fact that at the time of the passage of this Act the present Taoiseach, then Deputy Haughey, was opposed to capital punishment? Would the Minister not find that he had somebody who was sympathetic to the proposal to get rid of this appalling practice in our country, one of the many appalling practices which we seem to retain in spite of changes in the rest of the world?

If there were proposals before the Government or if the Government had agreed that there would be a change in the law then I would be in a position to comment on the proposal by Deputy Browne. Now I cannot.