Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to say a few words on this important subject. Two or three things need to be borne in mind. The LGBT community deserves to be recognised and protected. Them being different is not a reason for hatred or to generate hatred, but to be able to go about their lives the same as everybody else. It is in respect of this that I want to say a couple of words.

If the Ceann Comhairle has ever studied, as I have, the faces of people in a crowd who may be fearful, for whatever reason, that fear is mirrored in their visage. It should not be that way. There is no need to feel aggrieved, to feel afraid or to feel they are under threat. That should not apply to anybody in this country or anywhere else. Several Members have spoken about this today. It is important that we speak out against violence against anybody for reasons of their race, their sexual orientation, their colour or anything about them. They are entitled to go about their lives without being impeded by anybody. That is not the case all the time, however. There have been cases in this country, which have been referred to and which I think are appalling. It is appalling to take some someone's life because somebody hates them sufficiently to do so. They have no right to take somebody else's life. Pretending to do it on their own behalf or on behalf of some kind of thinking is totally and absolutely wrong.

We have many instances I could quote. The biggest single example over the past 20 years was the war in Rwanda in which 500,000 people were decapitated at the behest of a person who motivated society on the basis of religious hatred and racism and took the opportunity to extract the maximum in terms of pain from the individual. It proved that it was possible to kill 500,000 people in the most grotesque circumstances. It was all done at the behest of a guy who hated people and who seized a radio station and used it to pour out his own particular twisted feelings to such an extent that there was an upheaval and violence. We know what the result was.

We have had incidents in this country where people with a different sexual orientation from the perpetrators were targeted and, in some cases, killed. What an appalling thing to do. One should never, inside or outside politics, have to deal with a situation whereby somebody hates their fellow man or woman to the extent that they feel they have the right to take their lives. That is something that is sacrosanct to the people and to the country. They do not have the right to do that in anybody's name.

I am sure, like me, everybody is appalled at what has happened in the United States in recent times, where a person full of racial hatred went into a school and decided to murder the children who were there at the time. Nobody did anything to stop it for a very crucial period. That is a bad sign of the way society is going. What would the founding fathers of the United States or Abraham Lincoln have said about that?

From time to time, we have had little slippages. They have happened in the UK where people were murdered in cold blood because certain other people hated their sexual orientation, what they said or the views they held, which they were entitled to hold. I and many other people have spoken about this previously.

People who are vulnerable, such as those who are smaller in stature, women, children and anybody who is not physically strong enough to withstand the attacker, the bully, are in an appalling situation. They live in fear in case their tormentors might be motivated sufficiently to take their lives, bully them or beat them up. That should not happen, it cannot happen and it should never be accepted as part of the natural progression of any state anywhere, regardless of how base it might be.

Listening to the Members of the House, our thinking on this is quite progressive and useful. Society has come on a long journey. However, we must remember that we need to lead as well and not take our custom or tradition from others who have different customs or attitudes. We must practise the principles of tolerance and compassion for others. The fact that some people are not the same religion, sexual orientation or nationality does not give us a right to hate them sufficiently to take away their rights or their lives. It does not and should not happen that way. It is a serious flaw in society if there are still people who harbour that kind of hatred that leads to violence, which has already been discussed by several Deputies.

I do not wish to delay the House, other than to thank the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, for his speech and the Minister of State for being present. As a society, we have learned, I hope, from the views as expressed by all sides of the House. One of the questions we are asked is whether we hate each other. I am sometimes asked that question. It is an amazing thing. I do not hate anybody. We do not hate anybody. It is not in our modus operandi to hate anyone. There is nothing to be gained from it, except disaster.

I wish well all those whose sexual orientation is other than mine. I have no reason to hold any antipathy towards anybody. We need to promote tolerance, compassion and the ability to work and live together regardless of who we are, where we are and at what level we practise in order to ensure that society gains from our experience and the benefit of what we put into society as we go forward.

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