Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will say that there is a coalition of people, including Members of this House, one of whom is no longer present in the Chamber but spoke earlier in this debate, who have argued for exactly the same thing. Those people need to be open and honest about their arguments. They do not like to use the word "equality". They like to use the word "difference". Those who argued against the abolition of slavery thought they were decent, fair-minded, right-thinking, religious and caring people. They did not like to be labelled as being in favour of inequality. They said that black people, slaves and people from the African continent were just different and had a different place in life, in society and in the world.