Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

I am delighted to be here for this excellent debate. Any debate benefits from disparate views but not views which try to make us feel we are of such low quality. I affirm the rights of Private Members' time strongly. The party which has the two hours each week is dictated by Standing Orders but since entering the House I have never heard one party dismiss another party's motion in such a perfunctory way. It is regarded as a particular party's business to pick a motion and debate it. The Senator and his party have put down motions and amendments to Bills with which I profoundly disagreed or which I found trivial and outrageous. However, that is my opinion.

A Senator has every right to put down a motion in Private Members' time and seek debate on it. Members then speak for or against the motion; that is the kernel of debate. By patronising Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, which put down a similar motion, Senator Ryan has exceeded his rights as an individual. He may complain about the motion or oppose our point of view but he cannot say a motion is trivial or nonsense in the way he did.