David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

First, I wish to record my sympathy to Senator van Turnhout on the death of her father.

I note that we are dealing with the Legal Services Regulation Bill at 6.15 p.m. and the Leader said we will debate the International Protection Bill when that is concluded. We are currently debating amendment No. 42 on Report Stage of the Legal Services Regulation Bill and 303 amendments have been tabled. How much time will be given to this? Even at two or three minutes per amendment, it will be quite late tonight if we are to deal with the International Protection Bill. I wonder if that is wise.

I welcome the decision of the court in Belfast on the abortion issue. Nobody likes abortion, and nobody feels one is not a complete person unless one has one. However, it is outrageous that third parties should seek to intervene in a situation where, for example, a 13 year old girl has been raped by a neighbour and is pregnant, where there is fatal foetal abnormality and the parents decide together that they do not wish to bring the pregnancy to term or where there is a case of incest. It is monstrous that third parties should seek to intervene. This is a private decision for the family and I very much welcome what has happened in the North.

I support what Senator Ó Murchú said about the Iraq war and the situation of the Palestinians. Mr. Cameron knows perfectly well that bombing Syria will have absolutely no impact on ISIS. However, it will affect the civilian population. He is making the very same mistake that Mr. Blair made.It is a disaster. It is very regrettable that Mr. Corbyn, the UK Labour Party leader, a man of great principle who stood against the Iraq war and all these matters, has been forced into a position where he has had to allow a free vote.

I have just been made aware today of a Palestinian family in the old city of Jerusalem who are being pushed out of their house and evicted to make way for a Jewish family. The Palestinian family has been in that house for 65 years. There is an endless process of attrition of the civil and human rights of the Palestinian people. The Israeli Government suffers no rebuke whatsoever because it is protected by the United States.

I am not sure I will be able to attend the briefing on prostitution tomorrow. I saw part of the programme in question. It is a disastrous mistake to criminalise one half of those involved in a transaction. Nobody believes that the lamentable legislation in Sweden has succeeded and nobody believes it will end prostitution in Ireland. I put a great deal of factual, scientific information from a study produced by Queen's University Belfast on the record of this House and it has never been challenged. This is an exercise in hypocrisy and self-righteousness by people who are, on the one hand, pretty strong feminists.