Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

We are only in the halfpenny place.

I do not wish to create any difficulties because this is the last time I shall speak but I must say some words of thanks - to the Ceann Comhairle, the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, the Acting Chairmen and those who preceded them. I have been a chairperson and I know it can be a boring job as much as anything else but it requires diligence and fairness and I am very grateful for that.

I wish to thank my colleagues. As Members of this House we rely on a solidarity but it must be one based on principle and integrity. I am very comfortable in being able to say that has always been the case in the Labour Party since I came into this House and I am extremely grateful for that.

I wish to thank the Ministers I had to shadow; in health, the Minister, Deputy Harney, and the Minister for Energy, Communications and Natural Resources, Deputy Ryan. I mention one particular thing the Minister, Deputy Ryan, did which was very helpful. He ensured that civil servants in his Department were very open to providing members of the Opposition with briefings and ensuring we were well informed and able to access their expertise. Not all Ministers are as generous. From our point of view this has led to a more informed debate.

There is a final point I wish to make. When I came into this House in 1992 it seemed as if a new dawn had broken. Women had, in effect, been absent from this House. In the 1950s they were known as the "silent sisters" because they were the relations of Deputies - no other women were elected. In the Dáil prior to 1992 there had been women pioneers such as Nuala Fennell and others who had led the way. Coming into the House with a new cohort of women Deputies I thought something new was beginning. It is my great regret we have stalled in that progress. I have no idea whether there will be more women in the next Dáil; I hope there will but I will not be overly expectant in that regard. I hope we can achieve some kind of parity in the future. I urge the two parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, to look to their own in this regard. The Labour Party worked very hard to ensure we achieved the election of a critical mass of women but we are only one party. There is a terrible gap or lacuna in both those big traditional parties in terms of female representation. The responsibility lies with those parties to make the break through and change.

The only time I felt afraid in this Chamber was when we began the debate on the abortion referendum and I realised there were so few women in this House. There were six or seven men for every woman so there was only a handful of us who could ever know or imagine what it was like to have a crisis pregnancy. That was a lesson that made me more determined to defeat that referendum and I am very glad the Irish people chose to do that. However, it certainly brought home to me that it is not a fully functional Parliament unless we can have that kind of balance in the future.

I do not wish to speak much longer other than to thank those who assisted me. I also wish all those other Members who are retiring from this House all the very best and, more particularly, I wish those who are going forward well. It is a hard station to stand for election. Representing the people is a great honour but it is not easy and is not getting any easier. In my view it is getting harder. Some of the personalised attacks on the Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, were unacceptable. It is neither right nor fair that anybody should have to put up with those kinds of attacks and in particular it is not right or fair that his family should have to put up with them. I do not say that people in this House have been guilty of that; I do not believe they have. However, when one looks at the public space this is unacceptable. That should be recorded. I thank the House. Question put and agreed to.

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