An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-18
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Sarah O'Reilly (AON), Agricultural Panel

I congratulate the Knockbride ladies who came to Dublin to play in an all-Ireland final last Saturday and won. They played superbly. In that game the winner was football. It was an absolutely brilliant game of football. I congratulate them. They came to Dublin with the cup on Monday and there were great celebrations.
I wish the Leas-Chathaoirleach and the Leader a happy Christmas, and thank all of the staff in the Oireachtas for their help and good work guiding us during the year.
Last night, I could not get over the irony of what was happening, with People Before Profit putting forward a Bill to ban fox hunting while simultaneously pushing their extreme abortion Bill. To me, it is the very definition of cognitive dissonance. Over the past few weeks, we have seen activists in front on Leinster House with placards and images denouncing fox hunting. Their arguments are rooted in empathy for these small, defenceless creatures. Where is that empathy for the child in the womb? People Before Profit want to remove all legal protections for unborn children and legalise the provision of abortion up to nine months - a baby. Women are being betrayed by our abortion system. Between 2019 and 2022, there were 84 children born alive after failed abortion procedures.
That is incredibly traumatic for the doctor, the parents and the baby. There is no clarity around the term "comfort care". In fact, what standards are in place for babies who are born alive? We do know in other countries that babies born alive have been left to die with no medical care. Is that happening in Ireland? It should be noted that the Minister for Health recently apologised to the family of Baby Christopher, who was aborted after a misdiagnosis of a life-limiting condition. It is the least that can be offered to with such profound grief. It is a very sad state of affairs that we have people who want to offer greater protection to foxes than to unborn children.

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-18