Rónán Mullen (Independent)

What I cannot get over, when debating this legislation over several days, is how often people have said they look forward to the day when these quotas will not be necessary. Not only that, they provide in legislation for the day when those quotas will not exist. I cannot think of too many examples in politics where we introduce a measure to deal with a current problem, but we are so ashamed of that measure that we plan to make it obsolete at the earliest opportunity. There is an acceptance in people's psyches that there is something intrinsically wrong with this approach. Why would we not be happy to leave it on the statute book in case it should ever be needed again? We get to the desired quota of 30% of candidates and 40% of candidates-----