David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is very relevant. I have asked the question and I prefer not to be interrupted.

I take this issue extremely seriously. I sat in this Chamber and listened to colleagues on these benches tabling motions that were effectively apartheid in nature. Had I been a Roman Catholic, a black person or a Jew and anything remotely like that was attempted, the person would have been fired out of this House straight away. Would the Cathaoirleach and colleagues like to imagine how it felt for me to sit here and hear valued colleagues suggesting that I should not be allowed to purchase cake decorations, weddings invitations and so on, that I should be denied the service of a hairdresser, as if I needed it? People should take this issue seriously. This country is rampant with homophobia, including throughout the media. There are decent people in the media who are terrified to open their mouths. I hear all the time about the liberal D4 conspiracy, the Dublin media and so on. Where the hell are they? Where were they when I was being crucified? Where are they when Panti, a remarkable man, comes out and tells the truth?

We might have an opportunity now of turning the spotlight on the Iona Institute. I am asking the Leader the same question I asked of his deputy, on which occasion I did not get very far.

The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, just equivocated with the usual old blather from one side of his mouth and then the other. Will the Leader instigate some degree of research into the Iona Institute? From where is it getting its money? Why does it not co-operate with the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO? Who made it an institute? In Britain, it would be legally prohibited from using the word "institute" because it is self-appointed.