Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Just because someone is behind a piece of skin and fed in a different way does not make him or her any less of a human being. I have very good friends who have views which are totally different from mine. Likewise, there are people who I know respect me deeply for my views, even though they do not agree with them. However, there are others who seem to believe there can be no thought except theirs.

The second aspect that surprises me is that we are meant to be constrained by the so-called will of the people which was not expressed in voting on the Bill, even though everybody knows that the vast majority of the Members of this House had promised to legislate and that the Government had a clear majority. What would shock me is not if people who were not in favour of the legislation were still not in favour of it. What would shock me utterly is if the 120 Members of the Dáil or more who were in favour of the referendum being carried suddenly came into the House and refused to stand by their word. Knowing that they will not do that, the Minister will get his Bill through the House without any difficulty. To be honest, I do not understand the obsession with trying to secure approval for what he is doing from those who do not agree with him. The public has been listening to the debate taking place in this House.

We must honest with ourselves. There are Members of the House who believe the Bill does not go far enough and who do not consider they should be constrained by it just because it is one the Minister published prior to the vote on the referendum. They will be pressing amendments to it on Committee and Report Stages. I accept their right to do so. I do not believe they feel constrained because what the people voted for was that there would be no constraints on what the Minister could bring forward in providing for the termination of pregnancy. Is that not correct?

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