Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

Having dispensed with that laudatory statement I will now go on to more relevant matters. While we are aware of Horace's famous dictum carpe diem or seize the day, I do not like the haste associated with the Bill. The term "seize the day" in this particular instance refers to tidying up because the elections are approaching. Let us hope that a large proportion of people will vote both in the local and European elections. The European elections are being held together with the local elections in an effort to get citizens to vote. Otherwise, the European vote would have been abysmal. Taking the term carpe diem to mean that there will be more people on their way to the polls, there will be a greater turnout for this important measure. I accept that as a reasonably valid point for having the referendum on the same day but I do not accept the haste with which the whole matter has come about, giving rise to the clamour we are beginning to hear about the legislative proposals. The greatest clamour has emanated from the masters of the various maternity hospitals. They have appeared on radio and television saying various things, yet they never tally and only serve to confuse. I cannot get a grip on the birth statistics for the various maternity hospitals. The Minister provided percentages in his speech but I cannot grasp whether the actual numbers are huge. To my mind, they do not seem to be vast. Rather like dramatis personae in a play, the masters have moved back and forth, saying different things every time they emerge. That is how it appears to me as a non-medical person.

I am also torn by the fact — and this is the part of me to which the Minister may refer as the wet or pinko part, to quote the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy——