Better laws are possible in 2025

Respect for human dignity is why I am in politics. I was early out of the blocks to oppose the Government’s attempt to dilute respect for ‘mothers’ in the Irish Constitution and to equate ‘marriage’ with ‘other durable relationships’.

This Bill had passed through the Dáil with the minimum of scrutiny. Not so in the Seanad, where a small few pushed back successfully against this destructive ideology. Voters backed our concerns overwhelmingly at the ballot box.

On the Oireachtas ‘Assisted Dying’ Committee, I led a minority report and recommendations with a simple message: Care, not killing, is the response of a compassionate society to those who fear suffering or being a burden.

I favour a strong social safety net but not a culture of dependency. I have become more sceptical of the State’s willingness to protect the common good. Our laws now endanger human life at its earliest stages.

New surrogacy legislation commodifies children and exploits impoverished women in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. The Tánaiste campaigned on a promise to decriminalise harmful drugs. Little is being done, it seems, to protect young people from a range of social threats. Better laws are possible.

In the Seanad, my Bill to create strict age verification requirements for purveyors of online pornography passed its Second Stage without opposition. I hope it can be enacted in the near future.

A decade ago, my office established the Oireachtas Human Dignity Awards to recognise people who have been exemplary in serving others and to fundraise for related charities. This work continues. In 2022 we set up, with enthusiastic support from An Ceann Comhairle, the Oireachtas Essay Competition/Aiste an Oireachtas. This Competition encourages senior cycle students, our future leaders, to reflect on democracy and on their own place in civic life. Because politics matters.