Labhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fail)

I, too, wish to take up the question of ethical issues. There was a time when people who focused on such issues were depicted as old-fashioned, irrelevant, not politically correct, out of step with the economic culture and so on. This created a vacuum which was often filled by vested interests who wanted to promote an issue contrary to beliefs of people in this country. Recently I have noticed creeping into newspaper articles and such like the idea that we should in some way accept nuclear power as an option even though we know the majority of people do not agree with it. The same can be said of neutrality. There has been a chipping away at the stand the country has taken down through the years. There are also ethical issues in respect of Iraq and the Third World. It is important we continue to debate these issues.

Senator Ryan mentioned medical experiments. There was not only the case he mentioned but there have been several cases where people, who were obviously not in a position to look after themselves financially, were induced to take part in medical experiments with disastrous results. There is, however, a change of attitude in this country and that old order is gone. People expect legislators, in particular, to come to the fore and to debate these issues.