Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A Cheann Comhairle, can I just elaborate on my point, please? I was making a perfectly salient and pertinent point earlier about the Government's budget, particularly its effect on the carer's allowance, child benefit and other matters. Not through bad temper or a slip of the tongue, the Taoiseach made his remarks, which were quite a deliberate and cynical attempt to distract attention from these measures and to exploit the sufferings of people in the North as a means of doing that.

Can I draw your attention, a Cheann Comhairle - he knows this better than me, if I may say so - to Standing Order 59, which states:

(1) A member shall not make an utterance in the nature of being defamatory

The Taoiseach also knows this. It continues:

and where a member makes such an utterance it may be prima facie an abuse of privilege, subject to the provisions of this Standing Order.

(2) (a) If the defamatory nature of the utterance is apparent at the time it was made during the course of proceedings, the Ceann Comhairle shall direct that the utterance be withdrawn without qualification.

I asked you twice, a Cheann Comhairle-----

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