Rónán Mullen
National University of Ireland · Independent · Ireland
“The fun side of her personality certainly came out during her participation in "Strictly Come Dancing". I think she had the humility to see that even if on occasions she could be seen as cutting a slightly absurd figure, she used that to generate affection and attention for the points of view she held a deep conviction for.”
“I also welcome our French dignitary and say, Vive la France ce soir et vive le Chemin de St. Jacques en France, I would say, à titre personnel. I do not think I was the only one in this House who was very shocked and upset by the news of the murder of Ann Widdecombe last Friday.”
“This Bill, I think, is the opportunity for the Government to recognise that it is not just extreme or violent pornography that is the problem.”
“Teresa's in Clarendon Street at 12.45 p.m. It is time for us all to reflect on the risks people in public life face, not just during their parliamentary careers but afterwards as well. Let us hope for a more secure and safer society for us all where people can express their ideas in a forthright and honest way and not be harmed for that.”
“He is so worried about adult privacy rights that he is not willing to commit to what is needed to protect children from being able to access pornography now. There is one thing the Minister of State did not say. He said that there is already existing online safety regulation restricting access to pornography, but is it working?”
“I acknowledge the work done by Coimisiún na Meán as the regulator in the online space. With all it has on, its role requiring parental controls, reporting, flagging and complaint mechanisms is important. It is undoubtedly attempting to fulfil its remit in demanding age assurance mechanisms of online platforms.”
The complete record
Every one of 391 lines we hold for Rónán Mullen, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 1 of 8.
“There will be arguments about privacy and about the EU's jurisdiction but strong, clear criminal law in this country will send out the message that will, I hope, help us to build a better future.”
“This Bill, I think, is the opportunity for the Government to recognise that it is not just extreme or violent pornography that is the problem. In fact, it is very hard to know at what point pornography becomes violent and extreme, for the very reason that many of those who are caught up in it have come from backgrounds of disability, poverty and sometimes sexual abuse. Nobody really freely enters the world of pornography. I will table amendments to urge the Government that not only should we have the criminalisation of extreme and violent pornography, but we really must close off the possibility for pornographers to make their content available to persons under the age of 18. This will be our opportunity to do it.”
“Teresa's in Clarendon Street at 12.45 p.m. It is time for us all to reflect on the risks people in public life face, not just during their parliamentary careers but afterwards as well. Let us hope for a more secure and safer society for us all where people can express their ideas in a forthright and honest way and not be harmed for that. I also welcome, as did Senator Rabbitte, the announcement by the Government that it proposes to criminalise extreme and violent pornography. I thank Senator Rabbitte for being so strongly supportive of my own Private Members' Bill last week, which proposed making it a criminal offence not to have strict age verification to prevent young people being able to access pornography.”
“The fun side of her personality certainly came out during her participation in "Strictly Come Dancing". I think she had the humility to see that even if on occasions she could be seen as cutting a slightly absurd figure, she used that to generate affection and attention for the points of view she held a deep conviction for. I am one of the many people who admired her courageous championing of human dignity at the very beginning of life in her defence of the unborn. Like her friend Sir David Amess MP, who was murdered a few short years ago, she was also a convinced advocate for animal welfare. There was much to admire in Ann Widdecombe even if many of us here would not be on the same page as her on Brexit-related matters and so on. Just to let colleagues know, there will be a mass for her tomorrow for those who would like to attend in St.”
“I also welcome our French dignitary and say, Vive la France ce soir et vive le Chemin de St. Jacques en France, I would say, à titre personnel. I do not think I was the only one in this House who was very shocked and upset by the news of the murder of Ann Widdecombe last Friday. I did not know her well but I did know her personally and met her on a few occasions. She visited these Houses back in 2015 when she was a guest of the Oireachtas human dignity group. The Deputy Leader's former colleague Senator Jim Walsh was here to meet her alongside me. She was in Ireland to speak at the annual dinner for pro-life education at the time. She was a woman of great conviction. Those who knew her would say that whether you agreed or disagreed with Ann, knowing her you found her to be very honest, forthright, matter of fact, humble and fun.”
“If we treat the online space as so difficult to manage in such a way that we can protect innocent users of that online space from being harmed, we would have a different attitude to what should or should not be allowed in the online space. That is a debate for another day. For now, I can only regret that the Government has not clearly committed to supporting the principle that it must be a criminal offence, in addition to Coimisiún na Meán's regulatory work, to fail to carry out age verification and to fail to ensure that under-18s may not access pornography online.”
“This Bill does not address the general question of adults accessing pornography, an activity that has no social utility. That is a problem which requires another social response. In the vanguard of demanding that response are the many women and feminist groups across the country that see the damage pornography is doing to relationships between men and women, although the dangers extend to men, women and children, family life and so on. It is not unreasonable or naive to hope that the day might come when pornography might not be available at all online but would be driven into the offline space. We would not be damaging free expression if we allow people certain access to pornography in the offline space.”
“What this Bill seeks to establish is what has always been the case where people engage in conducts that harm other people - that it would be a criminal offence. Right now, it is not a criminal offence to fail to ensure that children under the age of 18 cannot access pornography. That is a disgrace. The Government is continuing to disappoint people. The Minister of State was speaking out of both sides of his mouth when he said the Government is concerned about children and well done on this Bill, which we are not going to oppose but there are all these problems, especially around the privacy of people who want to freely go online and choose to access pornography. It is quite clear where the Government's priorities lie in respect of this. That is very much to be regretted. I will make one final point.”
“We saw the French act in such a way that they were able to design their measure around age verification. This Government is timid on this issue. If the future proposal is on an age verification mechanism in the context of an app, that is well and good, but right now the Government is not dealing with the problem. The Minister of State has not answered the core question relating to the Bill, which is whether the Government agrees that it should be a criminal offence to fail to ensure that under-age persons can access online pornography. Insofar as Coimisiún na Meán is concerned, this Bill excludes nothing in its approach. There is nothing to stop the coimisiún from being the organisation which, through the Minister, would designate certain documents as satisfying the requirement of age verification.”
“He is so worried about adult privacy rights that he is not willing to commit to what is needed to protect children from being able to access pornography now. There is one thing the Minister of State did not say. He said that there is already existing online safety regulation restricting access to pornography, but is it working? He did not make one iota of a claim to the effect that it is working. Right now, children are able to access pornography online and the Minister of State is telling me we already have a solution to this and we are working on a better one. In the meantime, we dare not act because the European Union might not let us. That is not going to endear the European Union to parents across this country if it is true that it is preventing the Government from acting in the way the Bill proposes. It is a fig leaf of an excuse.”
“In the end, what the Minister of State is talking about protecting is the privacy of adults who freely choose to go online to access pornography. I am not out – nor is this Bill - to attack their privacy rights, but the Government is putting those rights ahead of what is needed right now in order to protect children from being able to access pornography. That seems to be a bizarre situation. We cannot have a bureaucracy-as-usual approach to this problem. The problem is urgent. Children are being damaged now. Pornography serves no social good that anybody in this room can identify, yet the Minister of State is so worried about approaches that would require digital age verification that would involve the storage of data, which people would freely choose to upload or provide to a third party in order that they can access pornography.”
“I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I also thank all the Senators who spoke, namely Senators Sarah O'Reilly, Rabbitte, Ní Chuilinn, Tully and Scahill. The Minister of State did not comment on the core idea of the Bill, namely that criminal liability should attach to people who fail to prevent minors from accessing pornography. While I accept the general good wishes of everybody here, the Government is speaking out of both sides of its mouth. The Minister of State professes to be concerned about protecting children from pornography. He promises something in the future by way of a solution, but his contribution was full of references to privacy and protecting privacy. Protecting children is not an absolute priority for the Government on this one. That is because it is so hidebound.”
“Those who are concerned about the access of third parties may note that there are strict limitations in the Bill on how, when and to what extent age verification data can be shared. I will conclude on this point and let my seconder speak. As a core principle, the securing of privacy for those wishing to access pornography must come second always to the cause of protecting children from exposure to pornography. I will resume on that point later. I thank my seconder in advance.”
“The obligation is to ensure that pornographic content is not accessible to any person in the State under 18 and to require any person accessing pornographic content through these services to fulfil age verification requirements. The definition of pornographic content is careful to ensure that depictions of sexual activity that would occur, for example, in artistic or informational contexts that would not be objectionable are not caught by this legislation. The Minister of State will know there are concerns abroad about the State acting as a gatekeeper and identity checker and about the dangers of a "papers, please" approach to access to the Internet. This Bill addresses those concerns by providing that the Minister may designate certain classes of documents that can be used for age verification services.”
“In this case, in interacting with platforms and online service providers on age assurance mechanisms and requirements, the coimisiún would have to take on board what age verification would now mean under this Bill were it to be enacted. Of course, online providers not currently subject to the writ of Coimisiún na Meán would have to consider the implications of the legislation for themselves. Regarding this Bill, it has a wide reach because it is aimed at anyone who is responsible to any extent for determining, controlling, hosting or sharing content on a website. It is aimed at app store services and any provider of an online service that facilitates the creation or generation of pornographic content online, including by way of AI.”
“That situation seems to have changed because France, for one, has shown, as I understand it, that it is not bound by the terms of another member state's regulation of platforms that happen to be headquartered in that other member state. In France, platforms that fail to implement approved privacy preserving systems risk fines of up to 2% of their global revenue or nationwide blocking by Internet service providers. It is fair to say that, while it pursues objectives in this area, the European Union has avoided any suggestion that it would block member states from tailoring legislation or regulation for their own jurisdictions. I am not saying that Ireland should not continue to interact with our EU counterparts, but I do not believe we are restricted from introducing criminal offences as this Bill proposes to do.”
“It remains the case that if you want to buy a pair of shoes, you must in all likelihood use a credit card and therefore are subject to a higher degree of scrutiny than if you want to view pornography. That is because the pornography industry thrives on putting out free content already harmful to people, on the back of which they can mine data, sell advertising and make online sales. When I brought the previous version of this Bill before the House in 2024, the then Minister noted that in some US states pornography providers had gone offline but that, unlike those states, member states of the EU were not free to act alone. The Minister invoked the country-of-origin principle and said that Ireland could not unilaterally act nor should it.”
“In no sense has it universal jurisdiction to make demands and secure the accountability of platforms and websites providing pornography online to users capable of accessing it in Ireland. Fourth, regulation, even with the power to impose fines or to demand actions, is more vague. It invites tech companies and platforms to play to ducks and drakes and, in the end, lacks the focus and, to use an old word, lacks the exemplarity of criminal law. On the numerous occasions that Coimisiún na Meán has come before the Oireachtas joint committee on which I sit, it has not been able to reassure us that persons under 18 are no longer able to access pornography in Ireland.”
“I acknowledge the work done by Coimisiún na Meán as the regulator in the online space. With all it has on, its role requiring parental controls, reporting, flagging and complaint mechanisms is important. It is undoubtedly attempting to fulfil its remit in demanding age assurance mechanisms of online platforms. To be fair to the regulator, it explicitly mandates that simple self-declaration, such as ticking a box or entering a date of birth, is not sufficient for age assurance. There are four big problems, however. First, age assurance, which can involve age estimation mechanisms, is not the same as strict age verification. Second, it is left to the platform under the code, to some extent, to determine the precise mechanism that it uses for age assurance. Third, the commission deals mostly with online platforms headquartered in Ireland.”
“Again, there will be objections that it will be difficult to prosecute certain players abroad for their involvement in exposing minors to online pornography, but in France and certain states in the US, we have seen how ALAW, a company owned by a Canadian investment fund laughably called Ethical Capital Partners, decided to suspend access to its content on its main pornography sites, all because of laws passed that require publishers of pornographic websites to implement age verification tools for visitors. It is amazing what can be done when people find the will. This Bill is a revised version of similar legislation that I brought forward in 2024. Quite a bit has changed since. There is considerable ongoing discussion about the importance of online safety, heightened public concern and awareness.”
“We as legislators must show solidarity with those parents and guardians and take the first steps towards putting those who would expose their children to this danger where they belong, which is in the dock. That is the serious intent of the Bill. Fines by a regulator are mostly a corporate problem. Sentences by a court represent the more powerful judgment of a society on those who would harm children.”
“Studies of the brain show that if someone is addicted to pornography they tend to have problems at work and with carrying out matters of daily living. There is a lot of talk these days about the failure of some young people to launch in life. Pornography addiction is very much part of this story. We are up against a harmful behemoth and we must wonder at how we let such a situation develop to the point where it may seem out of control. The extent of the industry and the challenge of curbing it should not paralyse us, however. There is something more important and powerful than the pornography industry, and that is the love that parents have for their children.”
“In Strasbourg recently at the Council of Europe, I secured various amendments to a report, Violent Pornography: A Test for Human Rights, which was adopted by the Assembly. Arising out of an amendment I tabled, it was resolved that, even where not extensively violent or extreme, the making and distributing of pornographic content may proceed and benefit from situations where participants are affected by violence, coercion and a lack of freedom, including situations of social or economic disadvantage, addiction, or where participants have been victims of abuse, and it may perpetuate all these situations. Child abusers under 21 report difficulty controlling their pornography use and often cite such as a factor leading to their abuse of other children. I could say more.”
“The combined effects dramatically increase the odds of victimisation, and that is partly because pornography minimises sexually aggressive acts. With an increasingly higher use of porn, it is more likely than men will be more likely to rape, commit sexual assault, be sexually entitled and have hostility towards women. I am quoting studies, by the way, in all of these cases. Pornography routinely depicts the objectification of and violence towards women, and these images create abnormal sexual expectations, as we all know. Men's consumption of pornography impacts their view of women in measurable ways, including, but not limited to, objectification and acceptance of sexual mistreatment of women, etc. As with other evils, people may not always realise what they are getting into.”
“Pornography being accessed by children requires a particular response. The regulator can tell a content provider to weed out harmful elements of its context. We see with social media that it is so hard to weed out the harms that many governments are proposing to restrict access altogether before a certain age. If this is true of social media, not all of which almost by definition can be directly harmful, the complete ban approach must also apply to young people and pornography access. Not only that, something more than regulatory sanction, even criminal sanction for repeated non-compliance or the failure to comply with formal notices, is needed. Exposing young people to pornography must be the crime. Pornography and alcohol consumption are unique predictors of sexual assault victimisation for college females.”
“According to The Guardian , the global adult entertainment industry generates an estimated $78 billion to $97 billion in annual revenue. As many adult platforms are privately owned and operate discreetly, exact figures vary, but the market easily surpasses the combined revenues of traditional sectors like Hollywood and major professional sports. Time does not permit me to get into all the detail about the harm pornography consumption does, but there is a reason this Bill focuses on preventing the harms done by pornography, separate from the many other threats to online safety which the regulator must also address. The reason for this is that the pornography industry is so vast, and it is not that the consumption of some of its content may sometimes be harmful to children; it is that all of it is always harmful to young people.”
“The use of virtual private networks, VPNs, is frequently touted. As we are seeing with the ban on social media access in Australia concerning under-16s, the policies and mechanisms will need refinement. Indeed, they may need continual refinement in order to secure the goal of online safety. The difficulty of finding the magic bullet, the complete solution first time out, need not trouble us as long as we are clear about our core objective, and that we are committed to taking serious steps. If, as a result of enacting legislation such as that before us today, we ensure children and young people are not normally able to access pornography online, we will have begun to put a bit of much-needed smacht on the pornography industry - and what an industry it is.”
“We have the strange situation where big-tech companies drag their feet and talk up the difficulties and downsides of excluding categories of people from access to their product, yet when it comes to the purchase of goods it is well within their capacity to insist that only those who make online payments, including by way of credit cards that can only be held by persons over 18, may access their services. This Bill breaks new ground in providing that the requirement of the use of such a credit card as a condition of viewing pornographic content would satisfy an age-verification requirement. The perfect need not be the enemy of the good. Those who wish to talk down efforts to restrict access of minors to certain online content like to talk about workarounds to which young people can have resort to circumvent restrictions.”
“It is the norm in our society that we criminalise intended or reckless behaviour which causes serious harm to others, so it is past time that regulatory activity was underpinned by clear statute law under which providers of online pornography who do not ensure their content cannot be accessed by minors and who do not carry out age verification to secure this goal are guilty of a criminal offence. People's privacy is important, but subject to the higher good of child protection. This Bill, without in anyway sympathising with pornography use, addresses privacy concerns by providing for multiple approaches to age verification. Where there is a will, there is a way.”
“Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. This Bill proceeds from a number of core principles. The first is that pornography is harmful to society and access to pornography is particularly harmful to young people. We need to accept and internalise that enabling or permitting young people to access pornography is a form of child abuse, affecting not just the young people themselves but also others whom they encounter in their lives. The work of the regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, is welcome and important, but activity in the regulatory space is not sufficient and will not on its own protect young people from exposure to pornography.”
“I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act, in the interest of child protection, to require that access to pornographic content on the internet be subject to an age-verification requirement and to provide for related matters.”
“The term health-led is a euphemism for an abandonment of courage and principle. Of course you can have a health-led approach, but you can have an even more successful health-led approach if you back it up by clear law that prohibits having drugs for personal use, as does section 3 of the current Misuse of Drugs Act.”
“We have gotten to a stage where we do not want to expect people to be responsible as a matter of law for their own personal consumption habits. You hear stories, for example, of dinner parties in Dublin and people talking about the things you can order online, and we can also order this stuff. The law needs to have a clear view on that and to say this is wrong. I sometimes think that part of the dynamic behind this push for change is that some middle-class people do not want their little darlings to be on the wrong side of the law because of their personal drug consumption habits. The law needs to state this clearly. How you treat people who come before the law is where you can moderate your approach, give people a second chance and get them onto a so-called health-led approach.”
“This is a permissive and dangerous approach to be taken. The committee noted that the small sample of jurisdictions where decriminalisation had already been implemented reported an increase in drug consumption in public areas. With the committee members believing that local authorities should be required to discourage and reduce consumption in public areas, including through the use of local authority by-laws like those governing alcohol consumption, we need to get real. That is a complete dereliction of duty. Does anybody imagine that in some of these left-led councils we will have such by-laws? What we need in this as in other areas is clear law that discourages certain forms of irresponsible behaviour.”
“We need that clarity in our primary legislation in this country. I thank Oisín Kennedy and his staff at the Bills Office for working at short notice to enable this to reach this point today. It is a busy time of the year for them and I appreciate their help and co-operation on this matter. I ask for a debate on the recent report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drugs Use on the decriminalisation of certain drugs and the repeal of section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act. I have been on the record expressing major concern about such a recommendation. I do not think this proposal will have many friends among the responsible medical experts and researchers on the impact of drugs in our society. I have been and am critical of the centrist parties for, to my mind, caving in to the left and being captured in some way on this issue.”
“I request an amendment to the Order of Business that No. 17 be taken before No. 1. This is for the purpose of introducing the Protection of Children (Online Age Verification) Bill 2026. This is a revised version of a Bill I introduced in this House two years ago, which was passed at the time subject to a timed amendment. It reflects the fact that while good work may be done by Coimisiún na Meán in the regulatory space and while the Government may have its own plans with regard to social media, pornography is a distinct problem, especially for young people and it is highly damaging to them. We need clear criminal law to set a parameter that if proper age verification is not carried out, subject to some reasonable defences, thus enabling an under-age person to access pornography, an offence will have been committed.”
“They are seeking a total fund of €3,000 per shed in next year's budget. That would be an investment of €1.5 million and they have various other sensible proposals targeting the needs of particular men's sheds where special resources are needed. One of two not quite cost-neutral but very important asks would be that commercial rates would not apply to men's sheds. Could the Government work with local authorities to ensure those commercial rates are waived? Could it also work with local authorities to ensure that men's sheds can have long-term leases so they can be sure of their continued existence? Very often, that is quite precarious. Go raibh míle maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. Gabh mo leithscéal as dul thar fóir ansin.”
“It will continue for the next few years and I want to wish it well. It is always an excellent production and most enjoyable. TG4 invests three quarters of its public funding in the independent production sector and it is the biggest investor in regional producers. I just want to cur agus tacú le hiarracht TG4 inniu. I would also like to mention the Irish Men’s Sheds Association. By the middle of next year there will be over 500 active men’s sheds in the country. I think we all agree that men’s sheds are bringing something irreplaceable into Irish life, combating isolation and giving men, in particular, a much-needed forum to meet and work together. It is a tremendously positive thing which helps to combat social problems which we know are there, particularly around men and men’s isolation. They deserve every support.”
“Many organisations are meeting politicians in Leinster House in connection with their pre-budget submissions. I would like to draw the attention of the House to two very important ones. I dtosach báire, cuirim ar aird an Tí seo a luachmhaire is atá obair TG4 don tír. Tá sé ag lorg maoinithe breise, ar luach €11 milliún é, don bhliain seo chugainn chun cur ar a chumas na haidhmeanna straitéiseacha atá aige a chur chun cinn agus níos mó a chur ar fáil dá lucht féachana. Ní mór cur san áireamh go n-infheistíonn TG4 74% den mhaoiniú poiblí a fhaigheann sé isteach san earnáil léiriúcháin neamhspleách. Is é TG4 an t-infheisteoir is mó sa léiriúchán neamhspleách réigiúnach. The value of TG4 to the country will be seen in the coming weeks when its fantastic Tour de France coverage will continue.”
“They portray themselves as people who want to create a cohesive, united, caring society and they have nothing to say about the fact that our abortion numbers are rising. This is a massive tragedy and a massive loss of human potential. There is a human cost, as Deputy Tóibín spoke about, not to mention the hurt caused to very many women. There are women who have spoken out. I recall in particular the remark of Moya Brennan, whom we all admired as a great artist. She said she wished somebody had told her before she had her abortion. There are testimonies like this that need to be heard. Please, can we have better leadership from our Government on this to at least allow different sides of this debate to be heard?”
“I commend in particular those Ministers in leadership positions who went the other way last night. I renew my call for a debate in this House, but also for the opportunity to put on the agenda that we need to work together to reduce the number of abortions. It is a tragic thing that the likes of Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, who were in favour of legalised abortion, used to talk about abortion being safe, legal and rare, but we are not even allowed to say that now. The Taoiseach will not say that abortion should be rare. Why? It is because he, like the Tánaiste, is captured by an abortion lobby that seems to be calling all the shots. The pile of bodies is rising higher, with over 10,000 babies losing their lives every year. These people do not seem to care.”
“For example, I was in contact with one member of a left-wing party yesterday and I said I encouraged people to vote against the proposal, and that we need to give women the chance to at least pause to reflect, which would save many lives. The person responded to me that was certainly a positive thing they supported, and that they had stated so in their party, but that they were not prepared to lose the whip. It is fine for people like the Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, and the Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Harris, to pretend they are somehow great democrats, but in fact what they are doing is working behind the scenes with the other parties to move the dial on a very sensitive social issue in a way that does not reflect what their own membership expects of them and what the majority of their members would support.”
“I register my disappointment and that of many people over the passing in the Dáil last night of Second Stage legislation that proposes to remove the three-day wait for abortions. I spoke about this yesterday but what I did not mention was the rather lopsided situation whereby the two party leaders in Government, Deputies Martin and Harris, signalled at an early stage their intention to vote in a way that does not represent the position adopted by the majority in their own parties. While they say this is a matter of a free vote, in fact they are creating a lopsided situation because they are conspiring with other parties – left-wing parties – that do not allow a free vote. If everybody had been allowed a free vote, I wonder what way it would have gone yesterday.”
“I was also glad to see the Luxembourgish ambassador here today. I was part of the European affairs committee delegation that went to Luxembourg recently. It is a very interesting country given all its minorities, including the many people who were not born there and, indeed, the many who travel there every day to work. It is also a country with a very interesting association with County Carlow because its patron saint is St. Willibrord, as the Deputy Leader probably knows very well. Whereas we often talk about all the monks who travelled from Ireland abroad, this is a man who came from England originally and studied in Carlow for 12 years. According to Wikipedia, he is the only saint who is buried in Luxembourg. Carlow is the county connected with Luxembourg for our European Presidency.”
“However, by their indifference to our spiralling abortion rates, and their refusal to ever consider the need to encourage a culture of life, they give momentum to the rising culture of violence in our society where the strongest exert power over the weak. We all urgently need to rethink this issue together, to acknowledge that every abortion is a tragedy, and to at least commit together to working to reduce the number of abortions. I am reminded of a phrase in a song by Paul Simon "Why deny the obvious child?". Why is there such denial in our Oireachtas about the obvious child?”
“I do not know why Micheál Martin, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and Simon Harris find it so difficult to empathise with the cause of a little human being at the earliest stage of his or her development in the womb. Perhaps it is because the child in the first trimester is so physically small. We know that in the first trimester the embryo develops into a foetus, which itself is Latin for the words "little one", with a functioning heartbeat, brain activity and distinct limbs. In the words of Spike Milligan: "Small, but I WAS!". These same politicians will wring their hands at spiralling violence in our society and rightly lament the destruction going on in Gaza and the Middle East.”
“That is a hard act to follow. I commend Senator O'Reilly on every word she said. I also commend Senator Gallagher on his words earlier. I ask today for a debate on Ireland's spiralling abortion figures. The Sinn Féin Bill proposing to abolish the three-day waiting period is wrong in every respect. It will deny the very women who might need it the required guaranteed space to think and reflect about the irrevocable step that is abortion. Many women have benefited from that space and have kept their babies after the first appointment. This measure would also give comfort and assistance to those who would hustle women towards abortion, as we know sometimes happens. I am sorry to say that the leadership of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Health on this issue is truly lamentable.”
“I was reading about Grand Theft Auto only the other day, and this strange world that people can inhabit, which isolates them from others and where they are living out most unhelpful fantasies. In Grand Theft Auto a player can hire a prostitute or a hitman. I know I am straying from the immediate context, but what I am trying to say here is that while legislation alone is important, we have a mountain to climb in helping to make our society safer again, particularly for women, but also for men and children. Let us all recommit to working to make our society safer and to making the necessary policy choices in order to try to achieve some of that. I offer my sincere congratulations and support to the Minister and everybody involved in this important legislation before us.”
“In reality, no one piece of legislation can help us address the mountain of problems we face as a society as we grapple with the problems of violence, predatory attitudes and so on. We discuss it every single day in the Seanad. One area of concern for me is that of pornography, which is doing huge damage to young people online. It is rewiring their brains and hurting their ability to develop emotionally. It is inculcating negative attitudes between young men and women, in particular, and is leading to a range of problems. We have been talking a lot these days about the need to ban under-16s from being able to open accounts on social media. In fact, there is a toxic trio online, which is not just social media, but pornography itself and also video games.”
“We see it in the countless good works being done by people who have lost a loved one or family member to Alzheimer's or cancer or who appreciate the help and support they got from a hospice. They go out and fundraise to assist others. The loved ones and families who have acted so importantly and well in pressuring for this change in the law stand in that same tradition of reaching out from one's own grief and loss to make a difference for the sake of others, who might be affected in the future, to prevent, of course, more than anything else. I add my words of welcome to David French and to Jason and Joe Poole, who are here today. I also note what Senator Stephenson had to say about the wider toxic culture that exists. She mentioned in particular, and she was right to do so, online culture.”