Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is great to see Senator Norris in the flesh as well as on the wall.

I was approached some time ago by Senator Buttimer who asked me whether I would support him. I said I would be delighted to do so. It is not that I think my views are particularly special but I want to make several important points and I would be grateful for the attention of the House to allow me to do so. I agree with Senator Buttimer on many important things. I disagree with him on many important things. I suspect that on some of those important things that we agree on and disagree on neither of us is likely to change our minds, in the short term anyway. Even if we never agreed on anything I would be delighted to see Senator Jerry Buttimer in the Chair as Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann because I trust him 100% to be an effective and impartial Chair of Seanad Éireann who will build on the excellent example given by his predecessor, Senator Mark Daly.

Some people want to impute significance to aspects of Senator Buttimer's private life. That dimension of the encomium is not shared by some us who regard sexuality and such areas as part of a person's private life to be respected. There is legitimate agreement and disagreement about what the law should regard as desirable and normative and what must be seen by all as important personal space where the law should stay away on occasions. In this sense it is not a relevant issue for me or for many people I know I speak for when I speak in the Chamber. And yet there is a sense, I must acknowledge, in which it is relevant. I cannot pay a greater compliment to Senator Buttimer than to say I trust him absolutely that if any of these issues in any form comes to be debated in the House I know I will be as respected and valued by him as an elected public representative as somebody who might share his views or have views much more congenial to his views. These points are important. He proved his credentials on that point only today. The six most important words he uttered when he spoke about the repeal of the eighth amendment was "whatever your view on that issue".I do not know whether anybody else picked that up but those words meant something to me. I know they meant something to others who share my views and have voted accordingly and I know they meant something to those who voted against my views but privately shared them. This is something we all must continue to reflect on as Senators. There is a considerable portion in each of the parties that is not happy with some, not all, aspects of the social change going on in this country but who do not feel empowered or feel their progress within their parties will be impeded if they do not get on board with the dominant position. Senators in political parties who are bound by Whips, formal or informal, must reflect on that if they are to do their duty by the citizens of this country.

There are going to be difficult debates in this House in future, and surrogacy is but one, where people have deeply personal, relevant and important views, to which they are entitled, but where people who have different views must be allowed to speak equally and be respected equally. It cannot be the case that those of us who see social damage in things others see as social progress and those of us who value the things others seek to devalue would be seen as second-class legislators or that our sense of urgency would be derided or castigated as something it is not. We depend on you, Senator Buttimer. I am not interested in your personal view on those issues. I am not interested, in a way, in how you vote on those issues but I depend on you, as does Senator Keogan, who has been very courageous in recent times, to set a standard that others will follow and that committees must follow. I have sat on committees where we did not feel like we were all equally valued participants in the work of Oireachtas Éireann.

I will say something else that might be seen as a little controversial. I do not do so to make a point but because it is an important day and we are all in the Chamber listening. It is extremely important that we respect people's private lives. It is also important that those of us who enjoy any kind of public profile be prudent about how we conduct our private lives because when we enjoy any kind of public profile people start looking at us. One example are people who are bringing up children and looking to others to help them model important values as those children move towards personal maturity. If we ever depart from protecting our privacy scrupulously, we run the risk of making our private life a public thing and we might cause people to believe they may be affected by the values we are projecting.