Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend Senator van Turnhout for highlighting this issue. I believe the Minister will find it rather difficult in so far as legislation is concerned. It is not quite as simple as that. It is easy to ban the pageants and it is obvious they involve the exploitation of young people, with false make-up and so on. It would certainly discourage this competition coming back here again. However, we have to bear in mind the question of beautiful baby competitions at a rural show, for example.

That is common practice, but it can be very hurtful to the parents of the babies who are not deemed the most beautiful. In fact, all babies are beautiful. We are talking about infants being paraded in front of judges who decide that one of them is better looking than all the others. Where does one draw the line with this type of thing? We have to work it out carefully and the Minister has a responsibility to look at the overall situation.