WHEN cloning was discussed in the Seanad this week, Senator Joe O'Toole came into his own and brought the house down. He was as concerned as Senator Mary Kelly about the ethics involved, he said, but as a trade union general secretary he had to establish whether cloning would lead to people like himself getting half pay or double pay. This was an essential process in negotiations. Yet cloning would solve a lot of problems for politicians - particularly on double jobbing and bilocation - and could be extremely useful in this, an election year, when they could canvass a number of different streets or towns simultaneously. Could every clone have a vote, he wondered?
Senator John Dardis interjected to say Senator O'Toole was a one-off, a genetic aberration, and could not be cloned. Senator Michael Mulcahy was heard to declare - "Don't clone Senator Norris . . . please." There was much laughter in the chamber.