Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for being here. This is an emotional day. I share the emotion of my colleague and friend, Senator Humphreys, when he apologised. I feel the same need to show a sense of shame as an Irish man for what has been done to Irish women and continues to be done to them to this day. I join others in commending my colleague, Senator Bacik, who for years has campaigned on this issue. It was often a very lonely struggle, both inside and outside the Labour Party, to convince people like me and the people of Ireland of the great wrong that was done in 1983. She has been threatened with jail and received all sorts of vile communications over the years but she has never resiled from her absolute belief in the necessity for the Republic to live up to its name and deliver on gender equality in every single aspect of life.

I am tempted to be drawn into making this debate about the men of the "No" campaign who continue to utter misogynistic comments to try to shame and misrepresent what the vote of the people was about. We saw the antics in the Dáil. We have begun to hear unfortunate language being used again today in this Chamber. This cannot be about the men of the "No" campaign no matter how much they want to make it about them and how upset they are that their life's work is crumbling before their eyes. This has to be about the women of Ireland, the mistakes we have made, the shame we have thrust upon them and the journeys we continue to force on them. I can only speak as someone who is proud to stand in the Oireachtas today and feels a sense of the washing away of the sins of the past. Perhaps we did not know the country very well. I do not know if people in the Chamber have begun to look at their country and all the things we thought we were. We are now not what we thought we were. In Europe and the world, when we look left and right, we observe Brexit, Trump and the rise of right-wing populism across Europe. We thought our country was a conservative backwater that would never embrace the idea of LGBT rights, women's rights or reproductive rights and would never descend to racist race card immigration debates at a time of election. In some bizarre way, the island I grew up on in the 1980s is a beacon of light for progressive minded people across the world.

I will never know what it is like to be pregnant. I know people who I love deeply who have gone through pregnancy and I suggest it is the most profound thing any woman will go through. It takes over one's body, mind and spirit. It dominates every ounce of one's being for nine months until birth and every waking moment after that. It is monstrous, and has always been monstrous, to suggest one would take that decision lightly, that women take it lightly or should go through it, or be forced through it, against their will.

I do not intend to speak on every Stage of the debate. I do not intend to say more. I do not want to lengthen the debate because we have debated it inside and out. Many people have been discussing it for 30 years. Some of us are newer to the debate, having joined it over the past number of years. The country went through it in May and made its decision clear. There are elements of the Bill I am not comfortable with. The three-day waiting period is an insult to women but it was part of the debate on the referendum. If it was part of the debate in the referendum and people voted "Yes" on that basis, it has to be in the Bill. We can amend it at a later stage.

I have a seven month old girl called Anna. She has now been born into a republic where she is something approaching less than a second class citizen. She is now a full citizen of this Republic. She has absolute autonomy over her own body to do what she will with her own body at any stage of her life. On her behalf, because she cannot speak yet, I thank Members of the Oireachtas, citizens, young and old campaigners and, particularly, the young women with Repeal jumpers who were derided by media outlets and seasoned journalists who thought they knew it all. They said it was not the way Irish politics worked and that these young women did not understand Ireland or its nature. It was fearless, compassionate and determined - mostly young - women proudly displaying their Repeal jumpers who changed the country and possibly made the entire world look at itself and this country in a different light. I say well done to them. I am proud to live in a country with them. Let us get the legislation passed and ensure we do not wake up on a day in January on which another 12 women have to make the lonely Ryanair journey to England to get what they deserve in their own country.