Derek McDowell (Labour)

We should remember that when those people find a vulnerable gay person living in their community, that kind of obsessive hatred will be vented in a homophobic way on that person. A person who is lonely, vulnerable and does not have a robust constitution cannot put up with that for three or five years. At some stage he or she will say, "I just cannot live in this street anymore, I am off".

What I am doing is giving real remedies to real people in real situations. I agree with Senator Tuffy. I would argue that, perhaps because of the pointy-headed people, I have watered down this measure too much and I have made it too difficult to operate. Before an order can be issued, gardaí have to give warnings and such warnings have to be ignored and, in regard to child offenders, repeated warnings have to be given. Senator Tuffy may be right in that perhaps we will have to revisit this issue. No criminal law is in place forever but to say that this measure is a bad idea or that the measure in the UK has been a failure is wholly unscientific, not true and flies in the face of the evidence in the United Kingdom that the great majority of people want such orders to be part of their law.

We have to stand up for the small people in our society. Leona Helmsley said she thought that tax was only for the little people. Peace of mind and the right to live peacefully in one's home are not confined to the big people in society who have access to lawyers and the legal system to defend their rights. These rights apply to everybody equally — little and big people in our society. I appeal to the House to strongly support this measure to vigorously launch it as part of our law. I appeal to this House to reject the smug and effete witterings of a group of people——