Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I reaffirm my support for the Chairman and the work she is doing. I very much welcome the fact that she is an impartial, fair and balanced Chairman. It is imperative that the people who are home watching and listening to these proceedings would understand what is being done in a systematic and deliberate way to undermine the Chairman and all of us who are here, as Senator O'Sullivan rightly said, to find out information. There is a duty on everybody, irrespective of their viewpoint and from what vantage point they come, to engage with this process. As Senator Mullen knows quite well, when we held the hearings on the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill, I met him and the former Senator Walsh and individually went through with them a list of the people who were to come before us, and we put in place a process where non-members of the committee were involved in those hearings. Equally, it beggars belief that witnesses who refused to come in here on a Wednesday afternoon can appear on a television or radio programme and have their views articulated and announced when they cannot come before the Oireachtas. We are elected members. All of us have different viewpoints and that is fine.