asked the Taoiseach if he will outline all the proposals for the amendment of the Constitution which will be brought before the Dáil in this session.

The Government have requested the Attorney General to undertake a review of the Constitution. It is envisaged that this review will involve consideration, Article by Article, of the provisions of the Constitution as it stands. It will indicate areas where inadequacies in the Constitution are perceived. In such areas options will be presented to the Government as to the approach which might be most desirable. Such options might include necessary amendments to the existing Constitution or indeed the need for an entirely new Constitution. The Attorney General has not been fettered in advance of the commencement of the review as to the approach which he might take to it, but he will be inspired by the concept that our Constitution should as far as possible contain the kind of provisions that the Constitution of a United Ireland might at this stage have contained, had the political division of Ireland not been made, rather than reflecting the impact on our island, and specifically on this part of it, of this division.

In connection with this review, I would like to draw the attention of this House in particular to that part of my speech in the other House in which I drew attention to the position of previous leaders of the Fianna Fáil Party on this matter. As I pointed out in that speech, both Mr. de Valera and his colleague, Mr. MacEntee, subsequently explained why Mr. de Valera, clearly against his own instincts, had felt constrained for tactical reasons to introduce into the Constitution provisions reflecting the majority ethos in the State at that time. His successor, Mr. Seán Lemass, later described the Constitution as "a strait jacket" adding that changes were necessary in it and that it should be changed every 25 years. In turn, Mr. Lemass's successor, Mr. Jack Lynch, referring to the existing context rather than to any hypothetical bargaining table, said in 1970 and repeated at the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis in 1971:

In so far as there are constitutional difficulties which are legitimately seen by people to be infringements of their civil rights, then their views are worthy of intensive examination and we should try to accommodate them in our Constitution and in our laws.

It is in the spirit of the approach and attitude of these previous leaders of the Fianna Fáil Party, a spirit which I and those of us in this side of the House share, that I propose this review and I appeal to the present leader of that party and his colleagues in the national interest to adhere to the open approach of his predecessors to this matter.

Would the Taoiseach reply specifically to my question, which is whether or not there will be any amendments to the Constitution brought before the Dáil in this session?

The time scale of this review is something which has not been determined and, in fact, perhaps cannot be precisely determined. In view of the magnitude and importance of the task, it would certainly take a period of six months or thereabouts, at a minimum. That is, I believe, the view of the Attorney General. It will be then a matter for the Government to consider the report of the Attorney General and consider what action should be taken on it. On that time scale, it would seem difficult to bring provisions for amendment before the Dáil during this session. I am simply speculating as best I can in advance of something about which the time scale is necessarily somewhat in doubt.