David Norris (Independent)

I echo the compliments paid to John Hume. One of the most significant points about Mr. Hume was his way of expressing a complex political view with simplicity and clarity in a completely lapidary manner. Although, towards the end of his regime one became a little used to them, certain phrases, such as that about the significant border being in the hearts and minds of the people and not on a map, went to the heart of the matter.

I wish to raise a particular matter regarding violence against women which we discussed in the past week or so. Subsequently, there was a report in the newspapers regarding two young women living quietly on the outskirts of Dublin. They were lesbians and did not make a fuss about it, but some locals discovered this and teenagers and people in their early twenties besieged the house on a regular basis and caused the women annoyance. Eventually, they made so much of a nuisance of themselves that one of the women went out to ask them to keep the noise down. She was viciously attacked, a bottle was broken on her head and she subsequently received a number of stitches.

The case went to court where the young woman assailant was fined €500 and, on the basis that she would eventually manage to pay that sum, she was to be let off with the probation Act so that she would not have a criminal record. This is extraordinary.