Seanad report: The approach of the Mater hospital to the testing of a cancer treatment drug was nonsensical, the leader of the House, Mary O'Rourke, said.
Referring to "ethos", she said: "If women need a cancer drug which will help them, surely it's a very small requirement that it would not be given during a period of pregnancy for which the contraceptive drug would come into play. But apparently it's not being allowed. I just don't understand it.
"They're getting state money, big state money now in their refurbishment and their rebuilding. I just think that in this day and age it's so nonsensical, and they are asking that women would give a promise that they wouldn't engage in sex. That's equally nonsensical."
Brendan Ryan (Lab) said that what intrigued him was that when the equality legislation had been going through the House many members had tried to discover what the term "ethos" meant. It appeared now, on the basis of two recent happenings, ethos meant whatever people meant it to mean.
"On the one hand, if you venture into the area of human sexuality you get a metaphorical belt of a crozier delivered by people who would have the most plausible reasons."
On the other hand, a recent Cork case had shown that if one set up a hostel for alcoholics you would run into a collision with Catholic schools, whose official ethos was to champion the homeless and the marginalised, according to religious orders who had led a sustained campaign against the provision of such a facility in the vicinity of a school.
"One could only conclude that in terms of official Roman Catholicism sex is important and the poor don't count," added Mr Ryan.
Rejecting a Labour Party contention that tax evasion prosecution powers should be taken out of the hands of the Revenue, Minister for Finance Brian Cowen said the Government was not convinced the existing arrangements needed to be changed.
Since 1996, 35 individuals and companies had been convicted of serious tax offences, seven of them since the beginning of this year. In 13 of these cases, jail sentences had been imposed, although seven of them had been suspended.
Currently there were 52 cases of serious tax evasion under investigation with a view to prosecution.
Mr Ryan said it was astonishing that the Revenue Commissioners could write off as much as €72 million in Vat. If we were to use a strong economy to build a fair society then we must address the profound inequalities that scarred our society.
Mr Ryan was speaking on his party's motion calling on the Government to take whatever steps were required in this regard, including, if necessary, to ensure tax offenders were prosecuted through the courts with the same vigour that was applied to social welfare recipients.