Further to this.

‘Bewildered student’ writes:

Can I give some background to why this apparently trivial “horseplay” is a big deal to every woman and man I have spoken to about this today.

Last night, as our politicians gathered to vote on a landmark Bill many women in Ireland have been waiting for more than 20 years, a Fine Gael male politician pulls a female colleague onto his lap and then, after letting her go, extends his arm and gives her a pat/smack on the bottom as she hurries up the stairs.

It happened just before the Dáil voted on an unsuccessful amendment proposed by Sinn Féin TD Peadar Toibin which effectively called for the deletion of the suicide clause from the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill.

Earlier, Labour TD Alex White recounted 14-year-old rape victim X’s mental state in 1992. He told how she told her mother she wanted to throw herself down the stairs and, on another occasion, wanted to throw herself under a train.

Mr White also recounted how, in the presence of a Garda, when X’s father said the ‘situation was worse than a death in the family’, X said: ‘Not if it was me’.

This could not be more serious.

The legislation that’s being brought through the Dáil revolves around a 14-year-old girl being raped.

Who knows, X may have even possibly been watching the historic proceedings last night.

They were talking about her after all.