SEANAD REPORT:FINE GAEL justice spokesman Eugene Regan said that having raised a legitimate question on Tuesday about the Taoiseach's relationship with Seán FitzPatrick of Anglo Irish Bank there was no need for Mr Cowen "to get thick with me" over the matter.

Mr Regan said it would be much better if the Taoiseach addressed the question raised rather than attacking him personally. “The Taoiseach raised the borrowing limit that allowed the fiasco of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority and its purchase of the Irish Glass Bottle site.

“The second issue is the private dinners that were held at a very critical time when he was taoiseach-in-waiting and the veto [by the Taoiseach on Anglo Irish Bank being excluded from the bank guarantee scheme].”

Mr Regan asked Terry Leyden (FF) to clarify his comment about him being on the next assassination list.

Mr Leyden had not meant to “imply that Senator Regan was on an assassination list but he is a political assassin. That is the difference. He took out Bertie Ahern, Willie O’Dea . . . who is next on your list, Senator?”

Rónán Mullen (Ind) said good people sometimes made errors of judgment. “It would be a sign of maturity in our political process if we could see [Trevor] Sargent back as a minister at some point.”

Describing symphysiotomy as cruel and barbarous, David Norris (Ind) said he had been shocked to hear its use had been motivated by sectarian religious impulses. The practice had been ignored by the professional body. “Now we are sending it back to them. They are not fit to be charged with this [inquiry].” There should be a fully independent inquiry.

Speaking on the proposal for a constitutional amendment on children’s rights, Minister for Children Barry Andrews said attention had been drawn to the newly proposed article 42.4. “Some have suggested that any reduction in the threshold that allows for State intervention in the family should be resisted. This is construed as an attack on the integrity of the family . . . This was not the intention . . . The newly proposed 42.4 sets a new threshold, based on proportionality.”

The debate on the amendment would not be helped by the sensationalist approach of John Waters, Ciarán Cannon (FG) said. Waters recently wrote that the only equality provided by the amendment would be the equal right of all parents to have their children snatched by the State.

Alex White (Lab) said Waters’s contention was absurd.