Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Senator Ned O’Sullivan had planned to contribute. He would like to be associated with the remarks I will make on the Bill. I compliment Senator White on introducing the Bill to the House. I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, for being so open and generous in her approach. She indicated that she will take the best of what has been presented and will incorporate it into a Government Bill. That is worthwhile. Senator White has invested much research in the Bill and that will be of great assistance to the Government. This is not a simple or straightforward area, it is a complex one. The benefit of breast-feeding, which is essential in the early months, cannot be provided through paternity leave.

It depends on all those types of issues and on whether there is agreement between couples. It would be a great help to any new Member of the Oireachtas if his or her spouse or partner could be at home to assist in bringing up the children. This Parliament, this Dáil and Seanad, is very much geared towards men in politics as opposed to women, particularly women who have young children. When I was elected to the Dáil in 1977, I could come up here on a Tuesday morning and leave my four children at home with my wife and family. They were looked after, fed, dressed, educated and supported in every way possible. I was here three or four days a week and I had clinics at the weekend. This is not a very family-friendly place. We hear now that the Dáil may sit until 2 a.m. and that shows that this place is quite impractical in terms of being family friendly.

It would be easy to reform the Dáil and the Seanad and modern technology could be used. It would be possible through a system for Deputies to vote safely in their own homes if they wished to do so. There is no reason that could not be done. On crucial votes on a budget, the Members would have to be called up but on normal legislation voting in that way would be quite in order. Many changes could be made.

Deputy Lynch has been far more generous to Senator White than the Minister, Deputy Joan Burton, has been to me. I introduced a wills Bill in 2007 on which I received the support of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party and we got it through this House. It is a simple straightforward proposal to have a system in place for registering the last will and testament of people. There is no such system in Ireland. One can register one's dog but one cannot register a will. Instead of the Minister saying she would accept it, she said that the advice she got from her Department was that it was not practical. It is still on the Order Paper and I have kept it on it to try to persuade the Minister and the Government of its value.

I compliment Senator Norris on his point of view in this regard. The Government could consider such legislation. This House has provided extremely good legislation. Senator White has been very proactive not only in producing legislation but on producing wonderful documents on promoting women entrepreneurs, reports on the issues of suicide, child care and older people, which is fantastic material, and a Bill she introduced on the issue of mandatory retirement, which was very progressive. The Seanad has done the State some service, as Senator White and others have been very proactive in using the Seanad, as it provides a framework for introducing legislation.

On a point of clarification, I received a phonecall from a journalist just now. I am not worried about people tweeting from here but I am referring to when something is tweeted from here out of context. For instance, I spoke earlier today about the fact that certain fascists were Christians but that that did not excuse their monstrous behaviour. They were monsters, let us be quite about it. I hate being misrepresented. The then Pope brought in an encyclical in 1932 and even though there was two fascist leaders, they disregarded the Pope and religion and became absolute monsters, murdering people in the Holocaust. A tweet went out from here and it was picked up by the red-top journalists and straightaway they start saying they are linked somehow. I was making a factual statement. I went a bit further by the way and said that General Eoin O'Duffy was also a fascist who was linked to the Brownshirts and the Blueshirts who amalgamated with Cumann na nGaedheal to form Fine Gael. I will add further to this at 7 p.m.