Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will not detain the House too long, except to commend Senator Bacik for persevering with the Bill and also compliment the lead speakers for all the parties and the Independents for their contributions. In particular, I support my party colleague, Senator Power, who has put an awful lot of work into the Bill and whose frustration I strongly sense. It is an Alice in Wonderland debate as far as I can see. It is akin to two soccer teams going out to play and they kick about for ten minutes and then decide to go away, and nobody goes for goal. I am sorry for the Minister of State who has been sent on a pup's errand. She came into the House with one hand as long as the other. I have listened to many ministerial responses in my time. We will not play politics with the issue but this has been pretty abject. Basically, the Government is saying it has nothing done but now that the Seanad has kicked it up again, it will try to accelerate it.