Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Norris for tabling the motion. I also congratulate the Minister and thank her for attending.

The campaign has been varied. I am disappointed that we have not had a wider debate on the referendum. Like a number of other people have said, we were all concerned that something would come out of the woodwork in the last days of the campaign and, inevitably, it did. There has never, in the history of the State, been such a degree of consensus among civil society as there is on the amendment. If one goes back over all of the constitutional amendments one will find that not one of them enjoyed the same level of consensus. One can easily lose sight of that fact.

A couple of important matters have been stated but they could be stated again. Nobody has suggested that the Government acted in anything other than good faith. The Supreme Court did not recommend an injunction to halt the referendum, nobody impugned Mrs. Justice Finlay Geoghegan or the Referendum Commission and we still have not received the full judgment of the Supreme Court. Those are the facts. On the other side, I am disappointed with the debate over the past number of days. I am particularly horrified by some of the suggestions made on the other side of the debate that children are the chattels of their parents. Somewhere along the line it has been suggested that it is not all right for the State to hold the role of ultimate protector of the child. I am sure that everybody who has worked with children or in politics is privileged to be able to go to the doors of the country. I have been in homes - I am not exaggerating - where children crawled around naked and were thrown food as if they were dogs in a pit. That is the reality for some children and we should not apologise for ever saying that we are their ultimate protectors. On Saturday we will have an opportunity to stand up and be counted. That is what the referendum is about and is the message that should be sent by the House.