Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

Ba mhaith liom aontú go hiomlán leis an méid a dúirt an tSeanadór Leyden inné. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to raise the matter yesterday as my time was running short but I would like to support and compliment Senator Leyden on the stand he took in regard to the Council of Europe and the abortion issue. When we have the President of the European Parliament here, will the Leader arrange that appropriate questions be put to him on the need for the subsidiarity principle to apply in regard to social legislation? We have seen the European Commission write to Germany about its civil partnership laws and the European Court of Human Rights overruling the courts in France with regard to gay adoption. Those are issues which should be left to the countries themselves to make their decision on. While there are different views in this country and in these Chambers, it is up to us to decide those issues in our own time and in our own way. I am a strong proponent of this position. If Europe begins to interfere in this area, as a lifetime proponent of the concept of European union, I would begin to have reservations.

I support the call by the deputy leader of Fine Gael in the House, Senator Coghlan, for a debate with regard to the forthcoming legislation on establishing a legal ombudsman and an overarching system for the legal profession. A report in the past week showed that with regard to the non-deafness cases in the Department of Defence, of all the millions paid out in compensation, 40% of the total cost went to the legal profession. That is greed on a grand scale and nothing has been done about it. It is time an independent body, not a self-regulating body which would be absolutely ineffective——