Seanad report: Mr Joe O'Toole (Ind) asked that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform explain why he had so contemptuously dismissed the views of the Human Rights Commission.
Referring to the Minister's reaction to the response of the Commission to the Government referendum on a change to the law on citizenship, Mr O'Toole said it hardly behoved the Minister to describe this body as being weak, tendentious and fanciful.
Mr O'Toole said he wondered if people on the Government side of the House felt comfortable about such a contemptuous dismissal of the work of an extraordinary body of people.
Mr Michael Finucane (FG) said he had listened to the debate on radio yesterday between Mr McDowell and Mr Michael Farrell of the HRC. "I must say I was bitterly disappointed with the attitude of the Minister for Justice. I thought at times that he thought he was in the Four Courts, using words like 'I challenge you'. I must say he came over as a very arrogant man."
The leader of the House, Mrs Mary O'Rourke, said she had also heard the exchanges on the radio. "I had one thought in my head, once a barrister always a barrister."