Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I am grateful to the Senator for the points she has made.

I am not in the slightest bit tetchy about this subject. When I went home that evening and saw the reaction to what I said, it suddenly occurred to me that what I actually said could have been reasonably interpreted as applying to the SDLP, but it was not my view at the time. I was thinking about the arguments, which were then being advanced by the Paisleyites north of the Border that this somehow warranted the entire scrapping of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. I thought that was a somewhat manufactured argument. People were saying also that because the DUP was saying that in Northern Ireland, it was a reason for not having the referendum, but that is a manufactured reason because if their objection is a manufactured one, arguments derived from it are manufactured also. I do not want to get personal at this stage but I read other arguments which I believe were divorced from reality, clutching at straws and instances of the wish being the father of the thought, in so far as "thought" is a fair term to apply to it.

In case it appears we are getting a little adversarial, I commend the Fine Gael Party for agreeing in principle with this referendum, subject to all its reservations about timing and the like. I thank it for drawing the distinction between its reservations on timing and its ultimate stance on this issue. If we are talking about making the parties in Northern Ireland tetchy, I would say very demurely, and with the greatest affection and respect, that Senator Terry's earlier amendment, which we did not proceed with, would have caused much more fluttering of the dovecotes than anything I have ever done or said. Whereas it is right to explore that possibility, if I had run with it, I would have faced a blizzard of abuse.