I also wish to say a few things about women on the day that is in it. It is not the easiest subject as it can be quite tricky with all the political correctness that is going on nowadays.

Maurice Chevalier had a great song one time about how to handle a woman. I do not think he would be allowed get away with a title such as that one these days. However, I want to put on the record that I like women. I love women, I respect women and I trust women. It was my trust in women that informed my view and vote when I was a member of the recent Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution and it is that trust which will inform how I will act and canvass in the forthcoming referendum.

This country has not quite decided on whether to trust women-----

Fair play to you.

-----and a lack of trust in women is at the core of much of the rhetoric we are hearing from the anti-choice groups. The people of Ireland will shortly get an opportunity to articulate how much trust they have in the women of Ireland and I am fairly confident the people will not come up short. Today I think of Kit Ahern who was a cousin of mine and a Senator in this House. I worked for her and with her politically.

I remember her well.

The Senator would. She was a Senator in the 1960s and 1970s before she was elected to the Dáil in 1977. It was through her and arising from an admiration for her that I came into politics. I will never forget what she had to undergo from sexist commentary by the male-dominated bear pit that was north Kerry politics in the 1960s and 1970s. Expressions of anti-feminism used to issue regularly at comhairle ceantair and county council meetings and on the hustings. It was a disgrace but she had the bravery and the guts to see over that and to best all those people. It is women like her that were the leaders. I congratulate women on the great strides they have made in this country within my own lifetime - we do not have to go back 100 years - and it is changing all the time.

For me, Senator Norris struck the key note in today's discussion. I, too, am remarkably impressed by the courage and consistency of former President Mary McAleese.

Hear, hear.

She is obviously a committed Catholic. I was born a Catholic and think I still am one, although I am regularly informed by theologians on Facebook and Twitter that I have been excommunicated several times.

That is the best kind.

I continue to believe that I am a Catholic, however. She is a committed Catholic and has the courage to call it as it is: an empire of misogyny. What a thing to say in the year we are in today. I will not concern myself with the affairs of the Catholic church but I congratulate the former President, Mary McAleese, who has uttered her views strongly and in a way that everyone understands. One would not have to go to the Oxford dictionary to understand what she says, and I commend her on that too.

The day is gone when the women of Ireland are stereotyped as Mrs. Doyle making tea and sandwiches at the meetings.

Go on, go on, go on.

Upwards and onwards, I say, to the women of Ireland.