Results 5,941-5,960 of 20,831 for speaker:David Norris

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Committee Stage (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: Senator Mullen knows some very odd people.

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: I listened with great interest to what my colleagues said and I was particularly heartened by the Minister of State's comments. I do not anticipate that we will succeed in respect of this matter. I cannot speak for Senator Bacik but I will not push my amendment to anything other than a voice vote. However, we will seize the opportunity to take on board some of what has been said. The...

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: Whose milk?

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: I welcome the fact that my colleague, Senator Bacik, referred to the case of Mrs. Gill. I do not believe she would object to her name being used in this debate. Mrs. Gill is from a farm outside Birr in County Offaly in the heart of Ireland. Her daughter was killed in a road traffic accident. She desperately wanted her daughter's same-sex partner to be recognised but that was not possible....

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: Yes, he did.

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: I am also happy to do so. The conversation referred to a nasty piece in a tabloid newspaper which suggested I was promoting sex with children. That is sinister thought control which can be denied as no one can say one way or the other whether the conversation took place because, unfortunately, the microphone may not have picked it up.

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: I do not propose to press the amendment or say any more about it. I do not speak on this issue very often because I have done so in the past. Like everywhere else, 90% of the people in the constituency I represent are not homosexual. While it is important to consider many other issues, as I have consistently done, there are circumstances when it is necessary to discuss this issue. If we...

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: The Senator said it.

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: He would hardly remember it if he did not say it. How could he remember it?

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: That is a very political distinction, if I may say so.

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: If I promise to make no further contributions, will I be permitted to make four short points?

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: They are directly related to the amendments and respond to the significant points that have been raised. The glory of our Constitution is its organic nature. It did not stop in 1937. This is why one can elicit unenumerated rights from it. If it was a static document rather than being subject to revision by the wish of the people, we would be stuck at the point where its framers placed...

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: Is it still there?

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: It definitely should be removed. I find that difficult to believe. At least I have learned something. We are back in the 19th century.

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: I have been proven disastrously wrong in that regard and I am prepared to admit that my ignorance is yet again revealed to be one of the great natural resources of Ireland.

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: The Minister of State claimed that Britain lacks a constitution. I think they have a constitution but it is unwritten. How else would her gracious majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, by God ordained, be described legitimately as a constitutional monarch?

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: My next point, on the recognition of foreign marriages, is even more important. Arrangements are in place for the recognition of such marriages and I do not consider it appropriate to impugn them. Foreign divorce can also be recognised. In that context, I find it tendentious to speculate on the notion of polygamy. I do not find such discussion flattering or well informed but it is of a...

Seanad: Local Economic Initiatives: Motion (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: I thank Senator Twomey for so generously sharing time. I cannot understand why the Government could not accept the amendment tabled by Senator O'Toole. Apart from any other consideration, the Senator possesses quite an amount of knowledge in respect of this matter because he is a founder member of a credit union. He has placed before the House certain clear facts which are apparently...

Seanad: Local Economic Initiatives: Motion (4 Mar 2009)

David Norris: Exactly. How can the Minister of State assert that their is no problem as regards liquidity? It simply does not make sense. I am not stating that the Minister of State is inimical to the truth or even that he is lying, which would be a frightful thing to say. However, I am stating that he has been ill advised and that the material he has placed on the record of the House should be...

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Mar 2009)

David Norris: The Senator should have tried blowing into them.