The Taoiseach has dismissed suggestions that the Government's proposals for the abortion referendum are unconstitutional.
He said two related provisions were involved. "My advice, and I assure you that they have been well and truly checked out, is that they do not, in any way, go against the Constitution."
Mr Ahern said whatever proposals the people voted on could not be changed afterwards.
He was replying, on the Order of Business, to the Opposition leaders.
Labour leader Mr Ruair∅ Quinn asked if Mr Ahern was aware that the abortion Bill was in conflict with Article 46 of the Constitution, which stated a Bill containing a proposal or proposals to amend the Constitution should not contain any other proposal.
Mr Quinn added that the Bill contained two separate and distinct proposals: the first to amend the Constitution, the second to attach to it a criminal statute.
"This appears, on our analysis and the legal advice available to the Labour Party, to be in breach of the procedures for amending the Constitution and to be explicitly in breach of Article 46."
He asked the Taoiseach to assure the House they were not embarking on "another legal quagmire" which would raise more constitutional problems than it would solve.
Fine Gael leader Mr Michael Noonan agreed with Mr Quinn's analysis. The Bill seemed to attach penalties of 12 years to acts of abortion and so was outside the scope of Article 46.
Asked by Mr Quinn if he would publish the legal advice he had received from the Attorney General, the Taoiseach said the advice the Government received on any valid points made would be clarified.
