SEANAD REPORT: Ms Shelia Terry (FG) said she was extremely concerned that legislation would not be in place by Christmas to protect women from domestic violence.
The Supreme Court had deemed barring orders to be unconstitutional, and she had understood that the Minister for Justice had indicated that he would have legislation in place to deal with this matter shortly.
"We are coming up to a period in time where females, and men indeed, in certain situations, are at risk, and the law will not be there to protect them," she said.
Ms Mary O'Rourke, Leader of the House, said Christmas was a dangerous period for those at risk from such abuse. An amendment to the law should be brought in before the festive season. The Minister had stated this to be his aim.
Dr Martin Mansergh (FF) said he regretted the very dogmatic view about housing policy in the countryside that was coming from bodies such as An Taisce.
"I think a lot of that thinking is coming from south-east England. I can well understand why you would not want a lot more one-off housing where you have enormous overcrowding and a tremendous amount of population in a small area", but this kind of attitude was totally inappropriate to a country like Ireland which had masses of space outside the greater Dublin area, and people who wanted to live in the countryside.
Speaking in a debate on the National Spatial Strategy, Dr Mansergh said he accepted that building should not take place in inappropriate places. There should not be ugly buildings which could be seen for tens of miles around.
"We are a free country and a democracy, and if people want to live in the countryside . . . and also, if we're being frank and realistic about it, a lot of farmers find it quite hard to keep things going. If they can keep things going for another while by selling a plot of land, provided it's not in an inappropriate place, why not?".
Mr John Dardis (PD), Deputy Government Leader in the House, said there was a very unhealthy fanaticism at large within a group of people in An Taisce. They portrayed those opposing their standpoint as being in some way totally in favour of willy-nilly urban sprawl. But nothing could be further from the truth.
The glorious fact was that we had an expanding population and we had people who wanted to live in the countryside as opposed to towns. In the Killary area of the west of Ireland, which he had visited during the summer, there had been 600 people per square mile before the Famine. If there were 10 per square mile now that would be the height of it.
Certainly, there were some houses which were built in inappropriate locations, but there were also people coming back to be in local schools, pubs and churches. That should be celebrated.
"I have made the point to Mr Lumley that it strikes me as wrong that there are people who live in very comfortable middle-class urban surroundings with a very good quality of lifestyle, and they really want us to live in poverty out in the blooming sticks," Mr Dardis said.
A Labour member, Mr Michael McCarthy, contended that the origin of the word "golf" was "Gentlemen only, ladies forbidden". He was seconding a proposed amendment, in the names of Dr Mary Henry and Mr Joe O'Toole, to the National Tourism Development Authority Bill.
The amendment seeks to prevent the authority from paying money directly or indirectly to any persons or organisations in breach of the Equal Status Act.
The debate was adjourned.
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