Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is a classic tactical point that Government Senators repeatedly make. What I have noticed in the past here is that other Senators might come in and set out. I have not repeated myself hardly once in the context of what I have set out. I cannot believe that my colleague and friend, Senator Ward, said what he said. Here we are for the first time in more than year since we last discussed this issue and we have not been consulted with even once by Government. We have raised issues. We persuaded the media, mainstream and others, to take our points seriously to the point that the Minister and others representing the Government rightly had to answer hard questions. The Minister might have acceded, to some extent, to the validity of our concerns by withdrawing parts of the Bill here today. For my colleague, Senator Ward, to get up on his hind legs and offer a point of information - sorry, Barry, you only have two legs and I am not trying to suggest anything by that; I really am sorry and I did not mean it in the way it came out - to get up on his two legs and take issue with the fact that I remind this House of all the problems with this legislation and of the problems that remain after a gap of one year really beggars belief. It is suggestive of a governmental attitude that is not only not interested in the free exchange of ideas, but not interested in engaging with the real concerns that people have and have expressed. We should never use the guillotine in this House, especially not in the Seanad, except in cases of extreme emergency.

The Seanad exists to be the second eye on legislation going through the Oireachtas. Insofar as this hate-related legislation is concerned, the Seanad had done its job well. This is one of the occasions that we can point to where the Government was given pause by issues that were raised in the Seanad that were not properly ventilated in the Dáil. Please, Senator Ward and others, do not take umbrage or try to close down the debate by reference to the fact that I set out the issues again after a gap of a year or more. These issues have to be talked through properly. Let me hear it from the Senator that he will not support the ramming through of this legislation here today, and that he will not support the conflation of the important Committee Stage and the vital Report Stage of this legislation in the Seanad.