On behalf of myself and my party, Sinn Féin, I wish the Tánaiste and her colleagues in both this Chamber and the Seanad a very happy Christmas and a prosperous new year. I hope she has a very peaceful holiday. I also extend our best wishes and holiday greetings to all the staff who work in the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Given the success of the Convention on the Constitution in being able to discuss a wide range of issues and come up with several recommendations to the Government, is there any prospect of it reconvening this year to discuss further issues which may be relevant to the Constitution, particularly given the debate which took place in the Chamber over the past several nights, including the comments of the Minister for Health, other Ministers and Members on all sides who said the eight amendment needs to be dealt with? Are there any plans for this issue to be dealt with by the Convention on the Constitution?

I thank the Deputy for his good wishes and the good wishes to the staff.

My understanding is that the Convention on the Constitution has come to the end of its work. There are certainly no proposals to reconvene it this year. I am not aware of any other proposals to do so either. Clearly, the matters relating to the eighth amendment to the Constitution require very careful consideration and debate. As was said earlier by Deputy Calleary, there is a wide range of views on it. In the case of my party, the Labour Party, we advocated against that particular change to the Constitution being adopted by the people. The people, in their wisdom, decided to adopt it, however. As democrats we have to accept that.

There are serious matters with this issue which require detailed debate. There has been no decision on the convention being a mechanism for that kind of detailed debate, however. On previous occasions, expert groups and committees have looked at the some of the extremely complex issues which arise in these cases.