Mary O'Rourke (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

Yes. I have been asking for that information in parliamentary questions but I am only given the percentages. I have asked again for the names of the schools that do not or are not allowed to have the Stay Safe programme in the curriculum. I believe the Minister of State with responsibility for children is well disposed to ferreting out that information in the Department, if that is possible.

Earlier I spoke about the archaic laws on contraception, to which nobody pays any heed, and on remarriage, as well as the opaque system of annulment, which nobody understands or can access. It is a maze. Occasionally, I might receive a visit from a woman who tells me about going to a tribunal to tell her tale. She might have three or four children and be very distressed because she can never get married again in the church. She cannot, because the church will not allow it. That, too, is an archaic rule. The church's attitude to women is extraordinary. It is as if we were a race apart or "dirty people", only to be tolerated because we have the wombs to have the children, we give birth to them, enrol them in primary schools and have them come out of those schools as good children of the faith.

There is much more to be done. The church should show that it is willing to take the necessary roads and to express itself as being more in touch with people than it has ever been previously.

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