Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I have a point on what I said during Second Stage, during which I questioned the appropriateness of retaining anti-Whiteboy legislation on the Statute Book. This particularly related to the counties of Cork and Tipperary. I am very grateful that the Office of the Attorney General has since written to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform passing on the views on the House on this matter. I am very impressed by the depth of knowledge of the research team and its prompt reaction to legitimate queries. It is in command of the information and we are very reliant on its assistance.

The Whiteboys were the first evidence of rural resistance to aspects of an entirely unjust system of land tenure, and they were, to a degree, the precursors of the United Irishmen, the Defenders and later movements in the 19th century. The context in which they operated was entirely different from the modern one, in which we have proper democratic constitutional order and rule of law. In the 18th century, when the powers that be referred to "our glorious constitution", they were referring to one that excluded at least 80% to 90% of the people of Ireland and deprived them of any number of basic human and civil rights, including at one period the right to land tenure if one were a Catholic.

Legislation of this kind is a blot on our Statute Book and I find it hard to believe we cannot rely on our own legislation to deal with various forms of street disorder. We should be dealing with such matters using contemporary legislation, not using legislation that would be repugnant to most people if they thought about it.