I offer my condolences to the family of the three hard-working young men who lost their lives off the coast of Tramore yesterday.

There have been a number of deeply disturbing reports over the last number of weeks of the level of abuse and intimidation Deputies are receiving from pro-life activists and the Catholic Church on the protection of maternal life Bill. Like many other Members, I have been subjected to abuse and have even had people come to my house after midnight. There have been several serious incidents of verbal abuse aimed at Deputies, some of whom have been ambushed outside their houses, spat at and threatened with having their homes burned down. One Deputy has been threatened with having her throat cut. Last week, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin called on the Government to do away with the whip. No doubt, the Tánaiste is aware of attempts by the church to compare his Government to a totalitarian regime. On Tuesday, Catholic bishops issued a statement claiming people were being misled on the debate and that the Government is not obliged to legislate on the X case. We now have senior Vatican officials calling on Deputies who might be Catholic to resign if they support the Bill.

Does the Tánaiste agree that here is an organisation that is non-democratic, anti-democratic, historically anti-woman and which has the most dreadful record on child protection? Does he agree that this organisation has no right to be the State's moral compass and is in no position to lecture anyone on human rights given its blood-stained history from pre-mediaeval times with crusades across Europe and the Middle East, its submission to and sufferance of the Nazi regime in war-torn Italy and the irreparable damage it has done to human beings, particularly children, internationally?

Thank you, Deputy.

The irony is not lost on the public that Deputies who do not toe the line are being threatened with so-called excommunication. No such public threats were made to priests, bishops or anyone else within the Catholic Church convicted of abusing and destroying the lives of children. I call on the Tánaiste to condemn the Catholic Church for its attempts to intervene in the running of the State and to call on the church to desist from harassing Deputies who are already faced with the difficult task of making a decision on the legislation.

Thank you, Deputy.

Can I finally say that no one has the right to threaten legislators in a democracy? Threatening Deputies to induce them to vote in a particular way must surely be illegal. Let me put this to the Tánaiste.

No. The Deputy will not put anything else, please. He is over time.

If it emerged that a major criminal was attempting to bully Deputies on any issue, there would be a public outcry.

Thank you.

Will the Tánaiste condemn the church, its cohort and minions in the pro-life group on their attempts continually to intimidate legislators who have been elected by the people to legislate in this Parliament?

I ask Deputies to respect the rules of the House. I am obliged to treat everybody fairly. When I ask people to stop, can they please stop? That applies to everybody.

Fianna Fáil got 15 minutes and I get two.

The Deputies get the same as everybody else.

We do not. Fianna Fáil got 15 minutes. We timed it in the first slot.

I will not join the Deputy in condemning the Catholic Church or any other church. All churches and citizens have every right to state their points of view to Government on any issue of public importance. This is a democratic country and that applies to everybody. People have the right to state to their legislators their view, whether they are representatives of churches, the pro-life movement or have a private opinion and long may that continue. It is our job as legislators to legislate in a fair way on behalf of the entire people of the country. As legislators, we have a responsibility to hear the points of view that are being expressed, to respect them and to respectfully disagree if that is appropriate. While some of the statements which have been made by church leaders on the legislation are exaggerated, we should not in the House lose sight of what we are doing. Of course, I agree that when people make protests and express their points of view, it should be done respectfully. They should obviously not engage in the harassment of public representatives. I agree with the Deputy on that. However, we should not lose sight of the fact that this legislation is about protecting the lives of women in pregnancy.

The vast majority of the time, pregnancy and child birth are happy occasions, but there are a small number of cases in which a woman's life is at risk in pregnancy. It is the Government's settled view that, in those circumstances, we must legislate to provide clarity for women that their lives are safe, that they are safe in our hospitals and to provide clarity for the medical practitioners dealing with them. In some cases, a termination of pregnancy may be necessary to save the life of a mother. That is what the legislation is about and we should not get ourselves distracted by the nature of the campaigning, lobbying or engagement with public representatives. My personal view on the subject has been known for a very long time and over the years I have been subjected to some of the vigorous and sometimes overly vigorous campaigning on it.

We are public representatives and people can state their views passionately. Sometimes they may go overboard in the way they do it but as long as we are clear in our minds that our job is to legislate on behalf of the people and in the public interest, we will always be able to distinguish between the rights of people to express points of view, including points of view we do not agree with.

The bishops have every right to express their views on the proposed legislation but I will take up the Tánaiste on the terminology he used with respect to respectfully disagreeing. Many Deputies believe in the pro-choice approach or want to back the Government on the legislation but they are not respected by the pro-life crowd. The point I am making concerns when people come to our doors after midnight to intimidate and to threaten and when there is no utterance from the Catholic Church to condemn this intimidation. Some 75% of the people in Ireland agree with the legislation, no matter how flawed I or others think it is. This intimidation is still going on and it is not democracy. As legislators, we are elected to do what we think is right, irrespective of our disagreements with one other.

Can we have Deputy Halligan's question please?

The Catholic Church, or any other church, has no right to interfere with how we legislate. It can have an opinion but that is different to interference, when obscene literature is being put through the door and we are being spat at-----

I will not ask Deputy Halligan again. Will he put a question?

That is what I asked the Tánaiste to condemn, to condemn the non-utterance in the case of the pro-life mob intimidating Deputies and others.

Deputy Halligan is over time.

Anyone expressing a point of view to a public representative ought to do so respectfully and in a reasonable way. There have been occasions, not just on this issue, where the boundary between what is reasonable protest and reasonable expression of a point of view has been crossed. We know that and it should not happen. I urge people engaged in lobbying or protest activity to respect that. The formal Dáil debate on the legislation will begin this week. It is important the debate takes place in an atmosphere that is reasoned, reasonable and rational. None of us should crank up the temperature in the environment in which it is being debated. The issue has been discussed, particularly in this House, its committee and in the wider public, in a reasonable and rational way. I hope that continues. None of us should start throwing fuel on the fire to increase the heat. Let us remember what this is about. This is about protecting the lives of women in childbirth and pregnancy. The opinion poll to which Deputy Halligan refers reflects considerable public support and understanding of the necessity for legislators to legislate to provide certainty and clarity for women and their medical practitioners.