David Norris (Independent)

I join my colleagues in offering my thanks and praise to the officers and staff of the House and the good words said about those retiring by various colleagues. I wish to mention my colleague on these benches, Senator Henry, with whom I have not always agreed. We have had our ups and downs but she added something special with her particular tone of voice, the reasonable way in which she made her case, the dogged way in which she brought reports on mental health and such issues to the fore and her special medical expertise. I believe she will be replaced by another remarkable woman whose name I will not put on the record in case I am accused of prejudicing the electorate. I hope to be re-elected and look forward to working with my colleagues if I am lucky enough to get back.

It will be an interesting election. The Taoiseach has already shown his mettle. I will not use the three words Mr. Haughey used about him but I was struck by the couple of strokes which have emerged so far. There has been an effective gagging of the Mahon tribunal which has been nicely corked up now. I congratulate him on his forthcoming speech to the Parliament in the next island; that was a nice little electoral dig-out by Mr. Blair. However, serious matters remain and I hope these will be addressed by the House in the next session.

On 6 March 2007 and not for the first time, I referred to the troubled matter of abortion and I read a letter into the record of the House because it was the fifth anniversary of a letter written by a wonderful and dignified young woman whose pregnancy involved a foetus with severe chromosomal abnormalities incompatible with life. She stated in her letter that she did not advocate social abortion and she was not a campaigner on this issue. Her letter states:

I am angry that men I do not know and who do not know me ... have decided that my body is their demesne; that they will have the right to decide how my family will cope with this very real tragedy; that, regardless of the emotional and physical distress for us, I must do what they want; that their bigoted will rules my body.

We should have listened to that voice five years ago. We have been reprimanded also by the Judiciary for not having the courage to act legislatively in this very difficult matter.

I wish to raise another matter because I have been contacted by somebody who raised it before. I refer to the question of sudden cardiac death in young adults. This is a great tragedy and it is estimated that 100 people under 35 years of age die every year in Ireland. Action has been taken to address this condition and a screening centre is located in the Mater Hospital. This is a genetic condition and the families of victims need to be screened in order to anticipate a possible difficulty. This centre is entirely supported by voluntary contributions. We should be pressing to have such centres established throughout the country to help prevent this tragedy of young death. It is very often the case that young athletes are victims. In the dying day of this Oireachtas I ask that the incoming Government will immediately remove the 21% VAT on defibrillators. These should be available much more widely. If they are funded by voluntary contributions it is obscene to levy tax on them.

I welcome the introduction of this petitions committee and I commend the Members of this House and the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission for its proposal and also the Leader of the House for putting it on the Order Paper. It will make this House more democratically relevant. I was a little concerned that perhaps it would clog up the business of the House but I have consulted with the primus inter pares of our group — the first among equals, not the leader — I remind Senator O'Toole he is not getting away with that even on this last day. He assures me that this will be an extended function of the Seanad and will take place outside. Such committees exist in the European Parliament and in the Scottish Parliament. It is a good idea which I would welcome.