Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I echo the comments of Deputy Martin. When this debate around the referendum started some months ago, I expressed my hope that the debate would be respectful and would never be personalised. With a few exceptions the debate has been broadly respectful of opinions on both sides. In almost all cases, it has not been personalised and that has been welcome. It is very different from the experience people would have had in previous referendums. People who have been in this House longer than me have told me stories of the kind of abuse that public representatives were subject to in the 1990s and 1980s during referendum campaigns on this issue. I am glad that, in the main, that has not been the case on this occasion. I thank Deputies Micheál Martin, Mary Lou McDonald, Brendan Howlin and the other party leaders for their support for this referendum proposition.

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