Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

I regret to state this, but methinks the Minister of State doth protest too much. She thought it was appropriate to give a character reference to a rapist, a disgraceful exercise which most of us assumed was already illegal.

There is no doubt there are flaws in Senator Crown's Bill but the humiliation the Minister of State heaped upon him in her attacking statement, belittling a Private Members' Bill, is a new low in the House. I am shocked to read the Minister of State's speech. I wonder whether she read it prior to delivering it. It is not like her to read such a speech. It is also not true that the Government has a new approach to Private Members' Bills because it has voted down every such Bill that has come before the House, including the Registration of Wills Bill on which everybody had previously agreed and the Family Home Bill, which many-----