Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

During last week’s debate the exclusion zone Bill did not receive any of the scrutiny it deserves although it will have a dramatic impact on civil liberties. Most speakers went on long tangents. One even went off talking about something that happened 30 years ago. Supporters of the Bill have claimed it strikes a balance and is proportional but is it? By whose yardstick? The Government claims it would impede on people’s right to protest because pro-life protesters will still be tolerated outside Leinster House. Is it not great? However, if protests are being restricted to a single controlled area dictated by the Government, independence is completely undermined. The Government is choosing who protests and where they protest. From a map I have been provided with, it is clear the exclusion zones blot out a tremendous area of Dublin city centre and elsewhere. Pro-life protests would be prevented from marching from one end of O’Connell Street to the other. That is quite simple. I proudly marched O’Connell Street the Saturday before last with a pro-life group and I compliment Niamh Uí Bhriain and her organisation for holding it. Denying this is not the intended outcome of the law is simply not good enough. That is the unintended – or more likely the intended – intention of this Bill. Thousands of people attend pro-life marches each year, including many elected representatives. Protests and marches should be citizen-led and should not merely be tolerated as long as they conform to arbitrary restrictions by the Government. That would not happen in Ceaușescu’s time for God's sake. Who does it think it is? I know it is getting carried away with itself.

If a march was to enter one of these exclusion zones dotted around the country participants, innocent citizens, would face up to six months imprisonment. Placing restrictions on citizens’ ability to express their views as they please is characteristic of an authoritarian regime. I said that. Where is the Government going to put all these people? It cannot put the criminals and the drug dealers in jail. For the love of God, please, will someone have some common sense here? I know the Minister does not have it. He does not express it. He made huge promises when the repeal legislation was brought in about it being safe, legal and rare. Now it is one in every seven. It is horrific.

Deputy Gould was talking about a lady whose story he had listened to. The review of that legislation was a sham review where not one person who decided to save a life rather than end a life was interviewed. Not one person was spoken to by the so-called independent person. It stinks to high heaven. For all the talk of stopping harassment, it seems to me this law would only enable harassment, namely, harassment by the gardaí of ordinary people expressing their pro-life views in their own country.

One third of voters opposed abortion five years ago and many others are sorry they did not because they were misled and blatantly lied to by the Government. It did not bring in any of the safety measures it said it would and it wants to take away the three-day waiting period which is the only bit of protection the vulnerable unborn has. Shame on the Minister.

The idea that this law is being introduced to stop people from engaging in actions such as blocking doorways or harassing people is totally untrue. There is ample legislation to stop people from doing that. The Commissioner and all the other gardaí have told the Minister that there is no need for this legislation. It is on Statute Book but the Minister is in a mad frenzy – a bloodlust – where he cannot get enough abortions and he cannot get enough services and he is going to force all the hospitals to deliver them and he is going to stop anybody from saying anything. This is some democratic country he has been elected in. I think he was elected on the 15th or 16th count?

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