Joe Conway (Independent)

I will not detain the House long but I have a few impassioned remarks to make in support of the amendment and Senator Clonan. We have an old expression, san áit a bhfuil toil ann, tá slí ann. Members will all know it as, where there is a will, there is a way. There is a way here. My schoolboy Shakespeare brings me back. Senator Clonan asked whether we had it in our hearts. There were a couple of lines in Julius Caesar where there was an imploration to the citizens of Rome:

You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!

O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,

Knew you not Pompey?

That is the question that is before us tonight. Do we know what we are doing? Do we know what we are really engaging in when we set about this whole game that is so often part and parcel of political activity, that is this awful practice of unnecessary can-kicking down the road? This is what we have here. We hear expressions like “life is wonderful", “life is cruel” and “life is for living.” Life is for living but when talking about the disability sector and people who are labouring under a disability, and their families who are trying to support them in the best way they can, all of that time, the clock is ticking.Life is for living. Who are we in this House to put a bac on, a stop to the necessary remediation these people deserve?

I am harking back to another few lines. They are from Sir Joseph Porter in H.M.S. Pinafore:

I always voted at my party's call,

And I never thought of thinking for myself at all.

I am not for a moment saying people on the Government side are not thinking for themselves, but this must be one time they could make that leap.