Results 5,381-5,400 of 20,831 for speaker:David Norris

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: I am very glad Senator Leyden raised this matter as I intended to raise it myself. I strongly support his suggestion that Pamela Izevbekhai should be allowed to remain in this country. I have written to the Minister suggesting this should be done on a humanitarian basis, and there is no better day than today.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: We are used to praising ourselves with regard to our human rights records. People sometimes say I got my justice in the gay rights issue but I did not get it in this country. I did not get it through the European Union either but through the European Court of Human Rights. At the end of the 19th century, the great French novelist Émile Zola rebuked a government by saying "J'accuse", I...

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: That is why I want a debate on this subject. If you want to hear the evidence, I will give it to you.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: Through the Chair, of course. I am sure the Chair wants to hear this too because I am sure the Chair must be as ashamed of our record as I am. I know where the Cathaoirleach's heart lies in human rights matters so it must gall him to have to preside over the farce that is going on here.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: Yesterday, we discussed the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, but it included a sneaky little provision, which was provided to the House in an unreadable manner, smuggling in the destruction of the Combat Poverty Agency. How is that for human rights? The Human Rights Commission has effectively been neutered in defiance of the Good Friday Agreement. In addition, the Government...

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: I am asking for another matter.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: In that context, when will the immigration and asylum Bill come before this House? That is a disgrace. How dare the Government produce this and continue with a chairman who is so discredited. I have never known this to be done before. It is a blatant violation of human rights. Today's newspapers report on another shameful asylum case where somebody is to be sent back to the Congo. I know...

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: ——but it was overturned because that decision was unsafe. When are we going to do something about asylum and human rights?

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: I am asking for this debate. May I also say something else?

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: The format of the Order of Business has been raised and I have pushed this matter continually. It is obviously not a matter of time because we routinely meet ten minutes late. In his generous and decent way, the Cathaoirleach takes people who were not heard the last time. Why do we have to take them out of sequence, however? Why not take the whole lot? It means issues that were more...

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: The time should be extended then. With regard to the question of gun crime, which was raised yesterday and today, yesterday's meeting in the Dáil Chamber of former women Members of the Oireachtas provided a wonderful example of a gun-toting lassie, Countess Markievicz, a toff like Seán MacBride, who rather enjoyed shooting the Irish peasantry.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: What kind of example was that when one is talking about gun crime?

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: No, we did not. Who was restricted?

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: We are employed for the full week.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: The Government was playing around with the Order of Business. It was that side's responsibility. We were perfectly right and will do it again.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

David Norris: If there is an opening, it is tiny.