Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber and thank her for coming here. Like most people have said, this is an important discussion though not one that anyone wants and legislation must be brought through, if and when necessary. Legislation has been brought before and the sky did not fall in. Things have been done, and done in the proper way.

I want to comment on the tone used today by Senators Boyhan and Gavan. I acknowledge the way that they spoke. They spoke about the concerns of people. We have all received emails from people who have concerns but a lot of them are ill-founded concerns. The tone in which we speak in this House and in the Lower House has an impact on people. We hear people say and we get emails from people stating that the decisions made are like what happened in Nazi Germany in 1939, that the decisions made this week were child abuse and that the decisions made over the last number of months are medical apartheid. These people did not come up with that language because that language was said in this Chamber and that language, in particular, was said in the Lower House. How is it possible that if I said now that in my view Senator Clifford-Lee is lying, Senator Horkan, in his position as Chair, would tell me that I have used inappropriate language, should not say it and need to apologise? If I swore then I would be told to apologise. However, if I stood up today and said that in my view what the Taoiseach has done is like Hitler no-one would question that and it is allowed to be said. Then we wonder why we get these emails and why people have gone down rabbit holes. We accuse Facebook and Twitter, which are valid accusations, but we have a responsibility in these Houses in terms of the way we speak. Today,.both Senators Gavan and Boyhan spoke in a constructive way about people's concerns but without using language that is just for headlines. What people say has a real impact on society and we do not have to look too far to see where that impact can take us. Two MPs in the UK have died in the last five years as a result of the actions of people who had radical views. It is not a matter of if but when this will happen in this State. Then people will stand up here to say that our Members were wonderful politicians, it is a tragic thing that happened and how did things ever get to such a stage. The Houses have a responsibility in the language that is spoken here as well as everything else. One cannot have someone stand up in the Lower House and compare the Taoiseach to Nazi Germany-----