The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen is shortly to seek formal Government ratification of Protocol 7 of the European Convention of Human Rights, he told the House.

Delays in completing the ratification process were due to the need to resolve a legal issue which concerned "an inconsistency in deportation procedures". The problem was identified at a late stage in the consideration of the ratification process, he said, in reply to a question by Mr Michael D. Higgins, the Labour spokesman on foreign affairs.

He would shortly submit a memorandum to Government seeking authority to ratify the protocol "with a view to depositing the instrument of ratification in Strasbourg before the summer break".