Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The national security of our country is being breached by increased requests for weapons flight exemptions. However, it seems that mothers are the biggest threat to security judging by the actions yesterday. I, too, want to put on the record the utterly outrageous treatment of mothers who gave up Mother's Day to peacefully hold a vigil. I was actually going to attend it myself. They had pictures of children who have been brutally killed in Gaza. They had what they call pillow babies, which are wrapped in swaddling clothes like a baby corpse.

Gardaí arrived at the gate at 5.30 p.m. Nobody needed to use at Leinster House at that time by the way. They took the pictures. They kicked the pillow babies in one case, which people found very offensive and insensitive. They then proceeded to arrest the eight women who were having a peaceful sit-down protest. The Taoiseach heard from other TDs that some of those women were strip-searched, and one was subjected to a cavity search. These are deemed sexual violence actions by Amnesty International. Why did that happen?

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