Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)

I compliment Deputy Timmins on introducing the legislation at this time. Very few Members ever introduce a Bill. What better time to introduce such a Bill than in the Christmas season when many of our citizens will be involved in good samaritan work, for example looking after neighbours living alone or visiting the sick. Many organisations are involved in voluntary work like meals on wheels. The Rotary Club, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and several other voluntary organisations will operate as good samaritans during Christmas. In the past all of us were good samaritans. It might have been as simple as giving someone a lift in a car or looking after a neighbour if the slates had blown off his roof or if he was injured in some other manner. That was all good samaritan work and that was how we lived at that time.

At one time in rural areas when there might have been only one car in a district the owner drove his or her neighbours to Mass and often made two runs in doing so. That was all good samaritan work which has now disappeared because of the fear people have. When I first got a car I would never pass anybody on the road. It might have been a young person hitching home at the weekend, or an old man or woman going to the village or town to do shopping. However, I now pass people on the road because, like everybody else, I fear that if the person received an injury in my car, I might be liable for that injury. The nature of our society has changed now.

I was very taken aback by the response of the Minister to the Bill last night. He does not seem to know what the parable of the good Samaritan was about. That parable was about a traveller who fell among thieves, was beaten up, robbed and thrown on the wayside. After his own people passed him by, along came a Samaritan, who was a man from a different race and culture. He helped the poor man, washed him, cleaned his cuts, put him in an inn and paid the innkeeper to keep him for a number of days in the inn. That is what a good samaritan does. Last night the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, had a golden opportunity to act as a good samaritan, as a Minister from a different party and a different culture from us. However, he did not act as the good samaritan. He failed miserably in his attempt and acted more like the robbers who beat up poor Deputy Timmins and threw him on the wayside and said his Bill was useless.

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