Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

In respect of the views that have been expressed by people outside the House, they are entitled to those views. However, I find it very surprising that in all their letters to the newspapers and speeches on television, none of them pointed out that this has been the law in Great Britain since 1994 and in Northern Ireland since 1988. They made me look like some wild experimenter who was coming up with something that had never been tried anywhere else before. They did not give me credit, which Deputy Howlin has done, for bringing in safeguards here which were not present in previous measures put before the House in this general territory. I do not understand——

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