Mary White (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The hearings of the last few days have been a momentous event. An equally momentous event was when we passed legislation for civil partnerships. It was a very moving occasion.

My question is for the representatives of the Catholic Church. If priests were allowed to marry, as clergy from other religious institutions can, and if they had daughters, perhaps if a daughter was raped and abused they might feel differently about demanding and insisting that she carry the pregnancy through to delivery of the baby. To be honest, I find it difficult to accept that men can speak in extraordinarily forthright terms, as if they know everything. How do they know what women feel if they are raped and abused and become pregnant as a result?