I should assert first, that I made my position known quite clearly and unambiguously on this Bill many months ago when it was first mooted. I gave my reasons then to my parliamentary colleagues and I reiterated those reasons on many occasions down the months. I conveyed my views publicly on this matter and they were recorded in the national and local press. I feel sure that those sentiments expressed openly, publicly and privately were not unknown to the Minister and my colleagues. Those comments did not go unnoticed.
I said then that I was opposed to this measure, that I regarded it as a retrograde step, that it was a proposal that would not be condoned by the Irish people if put to the test, that it was unnecessary and uncalled for by any section of our people, neither from any section of the majority or any minority grouping. Nobody called for this measure. When this proposal came before our parliamentary party, particularly at our meeting prior to the Christmas Recess, a meeting at which the Minister, Deputy Barry Desmond, outlined sketchily these proposals, I spoke at length outlining my apprehension and detestation of their proposal. It was put to a vote there. The vote was on whether it should be given unanimous approval by my colleagues, that the Whip be applied and that we vote under threat of expulsion. I voted against both measures and I was joined by one of my colleagues. The records of the parliamentary party prove that.
It is wrong, therefore, to suggest that I reneged on an earlier undertaking in this matter or that I misled my Minister, my leader or my parliamentary colleagues. I did not unless the Minister underestimated me in respect of a stand I have taken at various times. I thought he should have known me better. I repuditate, therefore, the suggestion contained in today's daily newspapers issued by a spokesman on behalf of my party that I misled my Minister in any way in respect of the stand I was taking on this matter. Only last week when the Minister told us he was bringing in the Bill this week I made it clear at all times that I would ultimately determine my position when I saw the terms of the Bill. I asked the Minister to let me have a copy or a proof of that Bill. My stance at all times was that I had reservations of the most serious kind and that my position and ultimate decision would be decided when I saw the Bill. I defy contradiction of those truths. If we are to disagree in this matter let us disagree honestly and deal with this measure in a charitable fashion. I honour my colleague, Deputy Barry Desmond, for his courage and daring in bringing in this measure. I hope he will respect me for the stand I am talking in conscience on this issue.
There was a previous decision in the House on a moral issue, the pro-life amendment Bill, and on that issue I differed with my leader, my colleague, the Minister for Health, and many others not as a matter of variance but fundamentally. We were given a choice of vote, a free choice in the matter. We walked different ways in the Chamber. We fought out that fundamental issue in the country on different platforms but we reunited later in our party to go on to further the interests of the people we represent. I understand that I am getting no choice in the matter on this occasion. There is here an element of complusion that if I do not conform I will suffer the consequences.
I can only tell the House, and the country, that my natural instincts tell me, and have told me, that this measure is wrong. Every fibre of my being tells me it is wrong. My upbringing tells me it is wrong. My informed conscience, I would assume, tells me it is wrong. The teaching of my Church tells me is wrong. My family and my friends tell me it is wrong and why then should any party compel me to do that which I believe is fundamentally and intrinsically wrong.
This is a matter of conviction and conscience for me. My colleagues know that and I make no apology to anybody for the stand I am taking on this issue and the manner in which I intend to oppose it. I have always had the greatest reservations about the matter and those reservations have been confirmed with the passage of time. Nothing anybody has said to me, or written to me or threatened me with has caused me to change my mind one iota on this issue. I still believe that the Bill is undesirable, unnecessary, uncalled for, destructive and divisive and cannot do anything to enhance the prestige of the House, the prestige of the Government or the prestige of the party I represent. In conscience, therefore, I cannot and will not support this measure in its present form. It is simply alien to all that we as a Christian society stand for. It is an affront to the youth of the nation. It attacks the Christian concept of marriage and undermines the family as the fundamental unit group of society possessing, as it states in the Constitution, inalienable and imprescriptable rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law. The family is the bedrock of our society. The Bill undermines family life as we have known it. It will be seen by many people, especially by Labour Party supporters throughout the country, as a device, a diversionary tactic to evade the real issues confronting the Government and the people. As a Labour man I believe the real issues are and always have been jobs for our people, equity in taxation, the elimination of poverty and deprivation which is now rearing its ugly head on every side.
There is violence; there is drug addiction; and fear abounds in this land. Our young people are crying out for jobs, not condoms. There is no scarcity of these devices, nor has there been any scarcity of them for the past few years. This morning the Minister told us that some 30,000,000 of these contraceptive devices were imported in the past few years. Subject to correction I think since November 1980 they have been coming in at the rate of upwards of 10,000,000 per year. To suggest therefore that any section of our people or any minority group are deprived or disadvantaged in this area is a sick joke. They are there in superabundance.
This Bill will open the flood gates and many more millions of these condoms and contraceptive devices will be available. I deplore this time-wasting exercise on legislation which is uncalled for and despised by the mass of our people. If passed it cannot do any good. It will do untold harm to the moral fabric of this nation. Instead of uplifting our people it will deprave them.
I always believed that my role as a public representative of long standing in this party going back to 1955 — this year I celebrate my 24th anniversary in this House — was to uplift, to enrich and to ennoble the lives of the people I represent, and never to besmirch, demean or degrade them as I believe this measure does. In the course of my political career I always strove earnestly to uphold the dignity of the human person. The indiscriminate distribution of contraceptives degrades human life and human values. It is not consonant with the dignity of the human person.
As legislators we are expected to maintain standards in respect of public behaviour and public morality. Can anyone deny that in this contraceptive Bill we are witnessing a sad and deplorable lowering of standards? If this Bill is passed it will be followed by more and more legislation of an anti-Irish and anti-Christian kind, demoralising and degrading our people and the minds of our people, and leading ultimately — and sooner than many of us think — to the emergence of a virtual pagan society. We are on the slippery slope towards paganism. As a public representative I seek in this House to arrest it and stop it in so far as I can.
I am and have always been essentially loyal to my party. No one can accuse me of being a time server, or operating under a flag of convenience. I have served my party long and loyally during difficult times. I never hid my identity as a socialist, a Christian and a democrat. My loyalty to my party can never be called into question by anyone. I value loyalty as one of the greatest attributes of any man or woman. I am deeply saddened to find myself at variance with the leadership of my party, my ministerial colleagues and my parliamentary colleagues on this issue.
This is not an ordinary issue. This is not an economic issue. This is not a social issue. Essentially for me it is a moral issue of the highest principle and of deep conviction. The inner voice of conscience speaks in such circumstances, enlightened conscience confirmed by my Christian beliefs. I must follow my conscience in this matter, irrespective of the consequences and irrespective of threats or intimidation of any kind. Conscience may not be compromised for political expediency.
I desire on this occasion to do nothing more than that which I have always striven to do, that is, to uphold the best, the finest and the noblest traditions in my constituency of South Tipperary and West Waterford, to uphold all that is good, noble and Christian in my constituency and the lives of my constituents who sent me here to represent them in 1961. They have honoured me with their votes ever since. They have entrusted me to speak for them, and I speak for them now. I say to them that I will keep faith with them on this issue as on very many others. Yes, I will keep faith with them. I confidently place my political destiny in their hands. I will be judged at the bar of public opinion on this issue and I will be judged in a higher place on it as well.
It has been said in respect of the stance I am taking on this issue that I am deviating from party policy. I know very many Labour party policies, the finest policies there are in the land if they could be implemented. There are many policies of this party, and they are far more important, urgent and necessary than is this piece of so-called party policy. There are items of party policy included in the agreement for government with our Fine Gael colleagues. None of them has been implemented. Although we have reached the half way stage in the life of this Government many essential items of policy laid down as part of the agreement for government have seen no signs whatsoever of implementation. There are policies crying out to be implemented to deal with job creation, equity in taxation, to improve essential services in health, welfare and education. These are the real policies of the Labour Party which have lain dormant and unfulfilled for the past two years. At a time when we have massive unemployment in the figure of 234,000, all we are concerned about is the distribution of condoms and contraceptives.
If I take a stance on Labour Party policy it is in regard to the bread and butter policies traditional to this party of ours. We were always concerned about standards of life, home comforts, equity of opportunity and the like, and I regard these as the real policy proposals of the Labour Party. I would be much happier were I speaking here this afternoon on some of those policy issues, some social or economic policies furthering the best interests of the people we represent rather than wasting the time of this House on this piece of political gimmickry which nobody wants and is of no real value to our country or the people we represent. With regard to this Bill being party policy, I should say that a policy proposal which impinges on conscience or intrudes on matters of high principle, such as faith or morals, cannot be imposed on politicians of any party.
