Results 5,681-5,700 of 20,831 for speaker:David Norris
- Seanad: Order of Business (5 Feb 2009)
David Norris: I intended to raise a couple of issues yesterday, but I was not fortunate enough to get in. My colleague, Senator O'Toole, managed to raise a number of them successfully. I refer in particular to the question of the rehabilitation by the Vatican of Bishop Williamson. I was interested in the contribution of a certain little interchange here.
- Seanad: Order of Business (5 Feb 2009)
David Norris: I do not engage in personal abuse. That is a very interesting comment because Senator Mullen's contribution yesterday included his usual mantra of appealing for calm and rational debate without personality-based or ad hominem arguments. He then proceeded to imply that Senator O'Toole was a clown and that I was ignorant, which may well be true.
- Seanad: Order of Business (5 Feb 2009)
David Norris: I cannot answer for Senator O'Toole.
- Seanad: Order of Business (5 Feb 2009)
David Norris: I am prepared to accept my ignorance as one of the great national resources of Ireland. Ignorant as I am, I heard Bishop Williamson on the radio saying there were certainly not 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. He claimed that the correct figure might be 200,000. He does not believe there were any gas chambers in Auschwitz. He has said that not a single person, Jewish or...
- Seanad: Order of Business (5 Feb 2009)
David Norris: It cannot be allowed to stand without rebuke. It is quite appropriate to challenge such views. The Holocaust was a uniquely catastrophic event in human history. While the overwhelming preponderance of victims were Jewish, they were not exclusively Jewish. This extraordinary and tragic event is part of our universal inheritance of suffering as human beings. It is inappropriate for it to...
- Seanad: Order of Business (5 Feb 2009)
David Norris: My constituent objected to the document on the basis that she had not paid for it and did not want it included with her telephone bill.
- Seanad: Order of Business (5 Feb 2009)
David Norris: She did not agree with Deputy Ahern, although that is nothing to do with me.
- Seanad: Order of Business (5 Feb 2009)
David Norris: She said it was not appropriate for the first shot in his campaign for the park to be included with her telephone bill.
- Seanad: Order of Business (5 Feb 2009)
David Norris: I am rather inclined to agree with her.
- Seanad: Order of Business (5 Feb 2009)
David Norris: I am afraid I would not feel in a position to accept his divine intervention.
- Seanad: Order of Business (5 Feb 2009)
David Norris: I did that entirely unaided by the Pope.
- Seanad: Stabilisation of the Public Finances: Statements (5 Feb 2009)
David Norris: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews. I listened to part of what the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, had to say and I read the document he provided. Like Senator Harris, I agree with much of its content. The Government now wishes to take resolute action. Unfortunately, it has not been resolute all the way through. There has been a certain amount of fumbling. In a...
- Seanad: Stabilisation of the Public Finances: Statements (5 Feb 2009)
David Norris: I appeal to ESB workers to show the solidarity that is needed. When people are being thrown out of work, it is unfair for those workers to accept an increase. The pension levy must be imposed in a fair way. Senator O'Toole made an interesting case in this regard. I heard an interview on the radio yesterday with a civil servant who is separated from her spouse and is under pressure to...
- Seanad: Stabilisation of the Public Finances: Statements (5 Feb 2009)
David Norris: Electricity costs must be reduced. Residential development sites are idle and half-finished. The Government should establish an agency and buy these sites at rock bottom prices from the developers, put public money into the project and get the building sector back to work.
- Seanad: Order of Business (10 Feb 2009)
David Norris: Hear, hear.
- Seanad: Order of Business (10 Feb 2009)
David Norris: I read an article in a newspaper during the week that suggested the word "crisis" derives from two ancient words, one meaning "danger" and the other meaning "opportunity". We need to consider the idea of opportunity. We are in very difficult circumstances and there is a crisis, at which the banks are at the centre. My problem is that we do not know the extent of the deficit. It is like...
- Seanad: Order of Business (10 Feb 2009)
David Norris: I compliment the Leader on the way he has fought stubbornly to have a reduction in the electricity tariff. He was supported in doing so by a number of Members, including myself. Circumstances are becoming increasingly worse. It is not just a question of the horrifying extent of the increases to bills, about which we hear on Joe Duffy's "Liveline" because the regulator is apparently...
- Seanad: Order of Business (10 Feb 2009)
David Norris: The Leader is learning.
- Seanad: Order of Business (10 Feb 2009)
David Norris: The goose is not golden but the eggsââ
- Seanad: Order of Business (10 Feb 2009)
David Norris: That is a goose with magical properties.