Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps if I had a been more in tune with public opinion, I may have elected to the House at a much earlier stage.

Several Senators made the point about listening and reviewing. I would not come into this House if I was not prepared to listen and take into consideration what is being said, but I have a sense of honesty within my myself that I should give a clear indication of where my thoughts are on this. With every motion and every contribution made in the House, I take on board the comments, review the matter and go over the advice I have been given. Members have said that they want to press amendments to a vote on Report State and I wanted to be fair to them and state exactly what is my thinking on this. That is why I said very clearly that I did not propose to accept the amendments. Fianna Fáil has taken note of that and that is the reason it will press the amendment to a vote this evening and I can understand that. It is important that a give a clear indication in that respect.

However, I will reflect on it after the debate. I will read the debate in the Official Report because some of the contributions were very detailed and I want to reconsider them. I want to give this House the respect it deserves.

I was listening to Senator White. I hope the practice she mentioned does not continue in major maternity hospitals, but sometimes it is difficult to determine the sex of a child. Unfortunately, sometimes parents do leave the hospital, but there is a mechanism in the registration process to correct that. It is deeply upsetting for the parents not to have a clear understanding as they leave the hospital. I would not like to be a parent going through that experience and I can understand why the Senator's sister was so upset when she came back from work. I believe we have moved on from that. I hope such experiences are in the past and that there are procedures and mechanisms in maternity hospitals to deal with parents in a sensitive manner on the rare occasion when this happens, and that they get good advice. The Senator can rest assured that I was listening while looking through the papers.

A number of points were made on education, but I will deal with that later when responding to a specific amendment on bullying.

The minimum age has been considered in other jurisdictions. Denmark recently revised its procedures and retained the minimum age of 18. I do not want to say that the Government does not want to move on this or that it is not listening. Pre-legislative scrutiny of Bills now takes place, and Committee Stage is a long process which allows further consideration. I was not a Minister of State when Committee Stages of Bills were being taken, but it is interesting to read the Official Report of those Stages and see changes and moves in regard to that.

I am not sure that what the Senator is proposing is the right thing to do, but to be fair to her, I am giving a clear indication that I will reflect on her contribution. However, at this stage I do not propose to accept the amendments. I know Senator Power wants to move her amendment, so I will conclude.