I welcome and support this Bill. I thank Deputy Coppinger for bringing it forward. The supporters of fox hunting like to present this issue as a rural versus urban one. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth. This issue actually unites urban and rural communities. Every poll and survey shows a significant majority of the public, both urban and rural, are opposed to fox hunting and want a ban to be introduced. I live in the countryside in a small townland called Scrothea West in the foothills of the Comeragh mountains, just on the edge of Clonmel. I was born there in a house that had no running water and no flush toilet. We had: five acres; two cows for milking; a couple of calves; two pigs; a flock of hens for eggs; a flock of turkeys for the Christmas market; a small orchard with apples, gooseberry bushes and blackcurrant bushes for apple tarts and jam; and a kitchen garden for potatoes and vegetables. It could not be much more rural than that. I trekked across the Comeragh and Knockmealdown mountains since childhood, spending many a summer's day with the local postman, the late George Conway. During that time, I learned to love and respect animals in their natural environments. My late uncle was a small farmer. One of my siblings is a small farmer. I do not claim to be an expert on rural affairs but I do know a little bit about them. Farmers I talk to hate to see the hunt arrive because these people - wealthy elites on horseback - think they have a God given right to trespass on farmer's lands, to leave gates open, to break fences, to damage crops and to scatter livestock. By the way, there is not a single item in this Bill that prevents a farmer from protecting his or her livestock. Fox hunting is a barbaric activity and animal cruelty by wealthy, well heeled elites on horseback is a bridge too far. This Bill is a reasonable, common sense and humane one and I believe it should be supported. Last Friday we all received a glossy brochure in our pigeon holes. They were a clear indication of the wealth and power that is behind the fox hunting lobby. By the way, the water diviner with the hazel stick on the front of this brochure is surely a colleague of the man who divined my water supply over 50 years ago. The other thing that jumps out of this glossy brochure is that, apparently, Tony Blair regrets bringing in a ban on fox hunting. I will tell the Minister that I will take no lectures from Tony Blair - a British imperialist war monger who is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Iraqi civilians, men women and children. I have not heard him regret that. I have not heard him regret the British genocide in Ireland in the 1840s and 1850s, called an Gorta Mór - the Famine. I have not heard him regret the burning to the ground of Cork city 100 years ago by the Black and Tans. I have not heard him regret the deaths of ten hunger strikers in the Six Counties in 1981. The public, as usual, are way ahead of the politicians on this issue. They support a ban on fox hunting and I call on all the political parties to allow a free vote for their Members this evening. It is outrageous that the Whip should be applied on this issue. I again call on all parties to allow a free vote on this issue tonight and pass this humane and reasonable piece of legislation.

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That is nonsense.

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Would the Minister stop?

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It is.

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