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A ROW BROKE out between Sinn Féin and government TDs in the Dáil this afternoon as proposals to enhance security around Leinster House were raised.
Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald recorded her “absolute disgust” and that of her party at what she described as an overreaction to a “minor verbal exchange” involving a Fine Gael TD in the Oireahtas complex last week.
The Irish Times reports this morning that Fine Gael deputy Catherine Byrne was allegedly confronted by a member of the public who was present for a Sinn Féin motion on recognising Traveller rights while walking to her car on Kildare Street.
In response, Oireachtas authorities have agreed to introduce a special entrance for visitors to the Oireachtas, increased lighting at the main Kildare Street entrance and a new rule which will see members allowed a maximum of five visitors.
McDonald wasn’t happy at what she believed was TDs thinking they “have some right to be wrapped up in cotton wool and insulated from the realities of life”.
But Fine Gael TD Ray Butler shouted across the chamber that he had witnessed the incident last week and said “it was not nice”.
McDonald’s Sinn Féin colleague Padriag MacLochlainn said Butler should “cop yourself on” and described government backbenchers as “a bunch of babies, a bunch of whimpering babies” as tensions and voices rose in the chamber.
McDonald said that TDs ought to be more concerned “at the substandard human conditions in which Travellers live”.
But an increasingly incensed Butler said he had witnessed the incident. He went on to describe MacLochlainn as a “bully boy”.
McDonald said the planned measures were “making a mountain out of a molehill”.
Responding for the government, Tánaiste Joan Burton said that McDonald should register her concerns with the Oireachtas rules body, the Committee on Procedures and Privileges, and accused McDonald of being “very divisive”.
“You’re trying to be very divisive by suggesting that other people who differ politically from you don’t actually have concerns about what happened in terms of the dreadful loss of life,” she said in reference to the recent tragedy at the Carrickmines halting site.
You don’t have a monopoly on lecturing the rest of us on how we should respond to human events.
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So the practice of arranged marriages continues… behind closed doors, unless some poor girl is strong enough to report her parents . Very sad ..
But now she can report them. That is why this law was brought in, to make sure that if it does happen, there is a law to help the victims of it.
Some of these girls are as young as 9 and some have been ‘married’ to 70 year old members of their own family. If the girls are ‘strong enough’ try to do anything about it the result is usually an ‘honour killing’ or an acid attack. Provided that the unfortunates have survived FGM.
The law will not be able to protect her from her family .
Did not the Prophet[p on Him] not marry a child of about 9?
No she was 7 but the marriage was consecrated when she was 9. Pbuh.
@mjhint – I think you meant consummated when she was 9. Just in case anyone is in any doubt over the ‘prophet’ and his actions concerning his child bride.
The subcontinent is culturally an extremely backward place. Gang rape, FGM and arranged (aka forced) marriages are commonplace.
The need for a force specifically to tackle this problem in the UK is what happens when a microcosm of that society is created within a modern Western nation.
This is why very gradual, controlled immigration is the only way forward, to avoid ghettoisation and the proliferation of subcultures.
Ireland should waste no time in following suit.
It’s a start but how do you ban something that’s ‘hidden’ & ‘cultural?’ Barbaric practice!
A great day for so many young girls throughout the world that have to endure archaic practices that serve no benefit. People who force their daughters into these sham marriages should be ashamed of themselves.
The law against arranged marriages is for the UK only .
This is definitely a move in the right direction by the British Government. The Irish Government and other Governments all over the world should pass similar legislation and make sure it is enforced.
You don’t seriously think that will stop the practice, FGM (female genital mutilation is against the law but it still goes on)
I have an interest in forced divorce. Let’s see if the Registrar General acts now.
I find interesting the image you have chosen be used in this article…
I was at a forced marriage last weekend. A girl who thought she should get married to the guy she’s doesn’t live cos she was ‘that’ age and daren’t be single. Forced marriages are sad.
have your say