Labhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----as we have seen in the media in very recent times. Remembering that the family is the basis of society, I think of families where parents cannot send their children to school properly clothed, ensure they are fed or give them warmth. This all arises from our duties as legislators. Either we take legislation to insulate us or we take the Constitution. If we are going to open up the duties of legislators, as was suggested by Senator Crown, we should not confine this to a very small section of our duties. Let us open it up and see if, as legislators, we upheld the Constitution when we fulfilled our duties to all the people and all the children of the nation. Whatever debate takes place at the Constitutional Convention or in the health committee in respect of forthcoming legislation, there would be nothing wrong if this House were to debate the Constitution in a broader sense, its relationship to legislation and vice versa.