Fiona O'Malley (Independent)

Notwithstanding what Senator O'Toole said about the Government not accepting this Bill, days like this make us proud to be in politics. We have agreed a consensus and I pay tribute to the Minister of State and Senator Bacik for dealing with this fluid situation. I am not sure we have secured agreement at this stage. The will of the Seanad is such that all Members are agreed we need to send a clear message that this is in an illegal practice. We must do so before we deal with the education element. It is important we work together. I pay considerable tribute Senator Bacik for bringing this Bill to the House. We have travelled a long road. Senator Bacik provided the history of women's health, women's sexual health and violence. I pay tribute to the Irish Family Planning Association, which has done much work in this area. We have made progress along the road by Senator Bacik producing this Bill and the Government accepting the need to legislate and to produce a response to the Bill fairly quickly.

I agree with Senator O'Toole that the beauty of this Bill is its simplicity. Notwithstanding the points raised by the Minister of State about the wishes of the Attorney General to strengthen and clarify the Bill, it should not take too long. The Minister of State made reference to the need to address female genital mutilation, which is also referred to in Ireland's national plan of action. This is a question of power. We should make no mistake about that. That is why it happens and why it happens internationally.

The contribution of Senator Mary White struck me and I thought about it when we were talking about cultural issues. I heard about the practice of churching through a colleague three or four years ago. I thought it was horrific yet a number of people in this room have heard of it and perhaps have had it practised on them, their mothers or sisters. That was horrific yet it was a cultural practice we put up with and it was all about power. It was a case of subjecting women to humiliation and that is what is at issue. Senator Hannigan's statistics in regard to people's beliefs in terms of why this happens are accurate. These beliefs are however misguided, a point also made by Senator Mary White. People did not know any better or did not question the practice because it was their cultural tradition. We have had enough of that. It is not fair to speak of this in the context of western traditions or cultural values as opposed to others because many African and other traditions do not buy into this. I do not believe we should set ourselves aside from it. We need to remember the values we all hold in terms of human rights. If we all pay tribute to and defend the human rights of every human being in the world we will never subject anybody to such barbarous behaviour.

I would like to speak a little about the language used in regard to this issue. I have been interested in this issue for some time. Senator O'Toole spoke of how uncomfortable people were when the issue of AIDS was first discussed. The acronym FGM is now common parlance. This was not the case only two years ago. Much progress has been made in this regard owing to the nature of Irish society. There are living in Ireland now people from a number of different cultural backgrounds and we need to deal with the issues they are confronting. I attended a seminar on the subject of FGM approximately one year ago. It was stated at that seminar that the use of terms such as "barbarous practice" is not helpful because people who practise it - the Minister of State made reference to this in her speech - strongly believe a girl is not marriageable if she has not undergone FGM. The sad part of this is that it is very often a girl's mother or grandmother who will insist on her having this done because her "saleability", for want of a better word, as a commodity in terms of her marriageability is considered damaged and totally comprised if she does not have this practice performed on her. Despite that these mothers and grandmothers know how horrific the experience is, they insist on their children and grandchildren having it done to ensure their marriageability. We need to be mindful that when we use language such as "barbaric" and so on we may be causing these people not to speak openly about the issue. Nonetheless, we need to be unambiguous about the fact that FGM is not tolerable. We must consider how we can get through to those women who insist on having this practice performed on their children.

Senator O'Toole was correct when he so eloquently stated that one will only change practice if the law in this regard is clear. Once it is provided on the Statute Book that this practice is illegal much work in terms of education can be done. It is important we are armed with an unambiguous law in regard to where Ireland stands on FGM bearing in mind our reputation internationally in terms of development aid projects. I am aware that the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, when Minister of State with responsibility for overseas development aid was examining in particular the issue of gender proofing and all other issues in this area.

There is a long road ahead. This is but one of many issues in regard to women's health. I am glad we have moved forward on this issue. As Senator Feeney stated we must get a commitment from the Leader of the House in regard to a date to move this forward. The Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, stated she does not want this to be an issue that will divide the House. It is not in anybody's interest to have the House divide on this issue when we are all agreed with the principle. I commend Senator Bacik and the Labour Party for bringing forward this Bill and the Minister of State, Deputy Brady, for bringing forward the amendment.