Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this Bill and the news that the Government will support it. I also congratulate Deputy Ó Caoláin for ploughing a long furrow, along with other people on the committee, in bringing the Bill to this stage. On many days I come here and wonder why the hell I bother but yesterday in the audiovisual room I listened to the ladies telling their stories and I felt that there are times when we have good reasons to be here. This evening will be one of those times if we follow through on the issue.

I hope this will help bring an end to a culture in Ireland that saw women for many decades as nothing more than meat and playthings for men. They were seen as basically child-bearing machines and treated as such. The day before my mother died she told me what was said to her when she was giving birth to me. Her comments shocked me but on hearing the stories tonight, they should have been no surprise. My mother was screaming in pain and she was told: "Shut up. You have had your effing fun and now is the time to feel the pain." That is the sort of attitude to women that led to the type of issue being discussed tonight, and I hope it is now buried in our past so it can never be repeated.

The act of symphysiotomy shows the limitless nature of the perversions of which this State was capable. We lived in such a twisted country that we even convinced the majority of the women that they were somehow less than men. The women here tonight should get their justice, and if they do, it will act as a kind of beacon to remind us of what went on the past. We must never let it happen again.

Deputy Joan Collins was accused earlier of cynicism and scepticism. People often mix up cynicism and scepticism, and the Deputy was being sceptical. Scepticism is healthy. Deputy Wallace spoke about a woman he knows who stated that one does not query doctors, which shows how important is scepticism. If people had stood up to question the practice of symphysiotomy at the time, it would not have been carried out. My worry is that the matter will not be followed through quickly enough. We must follow it through. One could see how head shops were dealt with overnight, and if we were really serious about the issue, we would deal with it as quickly as possible. I hope my scepticism is proved wrong but what is behind the idea of waiting for an extended version of a report that did not take in the accounts of the people involved? How can we have faith in that? The process must be quick. A lady at the gate affected by the issue summed it up perfectly when she said that justice delayed is justice denied. There should be no more delay.

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