Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I always appreciate the debates in the Seanad. I have said this on several occasions and I am not just saying it because I am present. The Seanad has a character of its own that we do not see in the other House.

I will deal with the last speaker first. I come in here quite genuinely and my approach to all these issues has always been on the basis that we need to find a solution to the difficulties that face us all. I have always taken that approach in politics. To challenge people in the way Senator Ó Clochartaigh challenged Senators to stop the hand-wringing is inappropriate. We ought to challenge Senator Ó Clochartaigh to stop making politics out of something that is clearly non-political. The benefit of having a cohort of Independent Senators is that it affords the opportunity to have a debate along non-political lines.