Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

At this stage, when we are dealing with equality issues, we should not even be mentioning such ideas. A very small number of people adopt children each year. Any privileges that are extended to them are done so by right. We should not speak of this as an imposition on employers, it is a right. Employers have to accept that and I take exception to the tone of language employed here when dealing with an equality issue. We do not speak about the imposition on employers when granting leave to pregnant women. In the same way, we should seek to obtain equality between natural parents and adoptive parents.