Aideen Hayden (Labour)

Like others, I welcome the Minister to the House. I also congratulate Senator Bacik, who championed the original legislation, the Female Genital Mutilation Bill 2010.

I became aware of this issue when, as a student in University College Dublin, I read an account of an African UCD student. She wrote in a college magazine about how she had been pulled out of her bed at ten years of age, taken by the women of her community and had a clitorectomy performed. It was probably the most harrowing story I have ever come across.

Many of those present are parents. I have two daughters. The idea that one could do such a thing to a child is almost beyond belief. However, significant numbers of female genital mutilations are performed on female children globally. It is not on the wane. For example, few Irish people who holiday in Egypt are aware of the fact that, despite protestations to the contrary, approximately 90% of its female children have FGMs performed on them. For those of us in Ireland, it is tempting to believe that, while this is an issue, it is not one for us. As stated by Senator Bacik and others, this is far from the situation. Apart from the fact that an estimated 2,500 women in Ireland have had FGMs performed on them, we are also a multicultural society and must face up to the facts of being one.

It has been stated in the House that this situation primarily concerns uneducated people. Facts from the UK give the lie to this assumption. Educated parents in minorities continue this illegal practice either directly or via underground methods, that is, they have FGMs performed on their children. It has also been stated that this is a cultural matter. We cannot underestimate the importance of the cultural precepts attached to FGM. For example, Senator MacSharry mentioned the sincere belief in a number of societies that the capacity of daughters to marry well would be impacted where FGM was not performed on them. We cannot underestimate the societal pressures. For this reason, we must be clear and vigilant regarding where we stand as a society.

We could expand upon a number of the issues raised by Senator MacSharry. The long-term effects of FGM include the decrease or loss of sexual sensation, in part or in its entirety, infertility, urinary incontinence and complicated child birth. I read a harrowing account of an Irish midwife working in a Middle Eastern country who had assisted a number of women on whom FGMs had been performed give birth.

We cannot be remotely casual about what our multicultural society is facing. We cannot leave this matter at the legislative stage. Legislation is vital and I am confining my comments to the Bill as a whole as opposed to specific aspects, but it is important that the legislation be backed up by enforcement and the clear message that sanctions will be handed out for any offence under this law. We must also move forward and provide support for the women of minorities. Evidence from the World Health Organization, WHO, indicates that the education of mothers in particular is influential in combating the practice of FGM. It is also important that we provide resources to facilitate women who seek the reconstruction of their genitalia following FGMs.

The issue of FGM goes to the heart of what constitutes femininity and female sexuality. As a society, we must be unequivocal in our condemnation of this practice.