Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I just want to say two things without commenting on the merits of the case. It would appear that 55 years after Belfast City Council unlocked the swings on Sundays, the proposition is being put in court that there should be supervisors for swings when adults are using them and that it is a matter of civil liability if there are not. It occurs to me that we live in a strange world when civil liability can exist in such circumstances. Perhaps we are only hearing a portion of the evidence. Who knows? It also occurs that if the Government is serious about driving down the claims culture, we cannot stand idly by when adults with two objects, one in each hand, lose their seat and fall off a swing and then claim that there should have been a supervisor looking after them, especially when it comes from somebody who has so much public influence and clear influence over Government policy in these matters.

As I understand it, the letter to The Irish Timesto which Senator Ó Ríordáin referred merely points out that the case for medicinal cannabis is being confused with the case for decriminalisation of all cannabis by cannabis users.