Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ultimately, the reason we brought forward this Bill is to do with the type of society we live in. Our society is out of sync. The one word that is hugely important in any of the communities we represent is "respect", and that is respect for everybody in our communities and respect for everybody in society, including respect for different voices in the Dáil. It is not about taking cheap shots which, unfortunately, happened earlier.

In the Bill I put before the House we did not set out to exclude any particular group. I had understood, and obviously wrongly so, that the Traveller community was covered by the term ethnic minority. I point out, as this was questioned by Deputy Clare Daly, that Fianna Fáil absolutely supports the inclusion of the Traveller community being classified as an ethnic minority.

I thank the Minister for her comments and support. I agree there are aspects of the Bill which require further consideration. I made that very clear in our opening statement. I clarify that we will certainly give consideration to including other forms of prejudice. In a meeting with ENAR Ireland and Mr. Shane O'Curry on Thursday, we discussed these elements and that is why I was very clear, both earlier in discussion with members of the media and here this evening, that we have to include other areas such as, for example, gender fluidity.

Deputy Jonathan O'Brien was completely wrong in saying that ENAR Ireland asked us several times to withdraw this Bill. It most certainly did not. I met with its representatives as recently as Thursday and I have an e-mail from Shane O'Curry, which I received today-----

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