Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too am thankful for the Minister's attempt to clarify the position but, as far as I am concerned, he did not provide any real clarification. I support Deputy O'Callaghan's amendment No. 6, which contains a nice mixture in terms of the members. I also want to salute and pay tribute to An Teachta Barrett. We often clashed in the Chamber in the past but he has given me good advice and I respect his opinion. We are here tonight afraid to take responsibility as politicians. We want to hive it off to the Health Service Executive, commissions and different groups. That is a very bad road to go down and a man of Deputy Barrett's experience and longevity in this House and elsewhere is aghast as to how this changed in the few days he was away. We are all aghast at the way it changed or where it changed. I compliment him and thank him for his guidance and clear warning that this is a very bad turn of events, and a very bad pattern to set here. We are the arbiters for the time being in terms of legislation. Whether they send us back here or banish us after the next election, the members of the public will adjudicate on the good or bad decisions we make but we should be accountable. We are accountable but we have seen too many issues arise with the HSE and other organisations for which people were not accountable.

It is ironic that we are here tonight dealing with this Bill at this juncture, particularly in light of what is going on in the referendum campaign whereby we want the people to give away their say to politicians. We have powers here but we want to hand them to a quango. Quangos have beset this land like a plague. When the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, was set up, I said it was like a wild animal released in the woods and that we would not know where it would end up - and we do not. We only have to look at the current mess. We are asking the public to trust us to pass legislation on the most serious of issues, namely, the life of the unborn, yet we want to give away the powers we have here just to satisfy one Minister. The Minister, Deputy Flanagan, might say we are attaching the two Bills, so to speak. It might sound as if we are doing that because both of them are appalling pieces of legislation. This Bill is worse than the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill. It is a mess, all because of a man and his ego so that he can tell his constituents in south Dublin that he has got two pieces of legislation through the House.

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