Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am talking about the women. Men do not have babies; well, not yet anyway. I was very disappointed because every time I listen to Fianna Fáil on radio and television, it is talking about the high moral ground and how the Government is not doing this and that and how Fianna Fáil is holding us all together with a great moral chain link. Well it was not holding any moral chain link together yesterday because its Members were not here. They were not here to stand up for women in whatever way because I know the Government has problems with this Bill and is trying very hard to strike a balance. There are many people who disagree vehemently with the Bill and I am one of them but they were still here to try to argue their way through it, which the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs is trying to do. Many of us are trying to come to some kind of conclusion where people can have the right to knowledge of who or what they are and their tribe. I am just very disappointed in Fianna Fáil Members. I do not want to hear them on radio and television programmes telling us about women for election and gender equality. I do not want to hear it. They were not here yesterday. I do not care what the excuses were. If they were whipped, they should have undermined the whip for this reason. They should have argued with their party that this was a good time to be here and even make an argument because when if one wants to talk about women, one must talk about equality across everything and not just on issues where they are whipped and issues where they are not whipped. They have been very disappointing. Do not let us hear any more moral arguments about Fianna Fáil's great chain belief in how it is going to move the whole country and how it is holding us all together with its moral authority because it is not.