Seanad debates

Thursday, 5 June 2008

10:30 am

Photo of Ivana BacikIvana Bacik (Independent)

——it has been proven this week to be the wrong course, so perhaps I shall not be putting any bets.

On a more serious note I want to ask the Leader for a debate on No. 21 on the Order Paper, a motion which I have table dealing with the issue of genital mutilation. A report has been published by the Women's Health Council of Ireland calling for legislation. It is a literature review which is examining this issue and which is particularly serious for women in developing countries. It is becoming increasingly serious in Europe for women who come here from other countries. Female genital mutilation, or cutting, is a brutal practice, which needs to be outlawed and specifically criminalised, even in European countries. I have been active on a campaign to do that. I have a motion on it before the House and the women's health council is again saying that specific legislation is a necessary, although insufficient element, to counter this barbaric practice in this country.

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