Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

I agree with many of the Senators that we should have a number of strong debates. Our first should be on democracy because the comments of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform yesterday in the Dáil were more akin to those that would be made by some jack-boot Minister in a Nazi country than those of a Minister responsible for justice in a democracy like ours. Many Members on the Government side in both Houses of the Oireachtas are very supportive of the principle of universality but none of them is saying he or she disagrees with its termination or is voting in accordance with his or her views. The only one who has done has left the Government side. To say the Opposition is bussing people up from the country to organise a protest against what the people disagree with is arrogance at its worst.