Results 9,361-9,380 of 20,831 for speaker:David Norris

Seanad: Order of Business (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: Could the Leader respond to my suggestion about a debate on abortion? Could we have a discussion in the audiovisual room to prepare for the debate, so that it is the kind of debate the Leader wants?

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. He is in fine form and is being honest and clear. However, his honesty and clarity just underline to me how dangerous the situation is and how absolutely futile our efforts are - how impotent we are in the face of the bullying that is going on. I did not hear terribly well. I thought I heard the Minister of State say that this undermines...

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: Well, it undermines it, in my opinion. As for the firewall, a firewall made out of firelighters is not an awful lot of use. It is madness. Half of the countries that are supposed to be contributing are bankrupt. We know they are bankrupt. Where are they borrowing the money from? Senator Marie Louise O'Donnell told me the other day that she had seen a performance by the comedian Tommy...

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: No, but it shows that the thing has become grotesque and surrealistic. This notion of borrowing in order to put money into a fund that is going to save us is bizarre economics, and is precisely the kind of thing the other House is screwing Deputy Mick Wallace over. The Government's behaviour, at international level, is the same behaviour it has criticised in an individual. It is dishonest....

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: I will certainly do that. I take it we will get to that section? It is part of the treaty.

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: I will certainly raise that, and I thank the Minister for his suggestion. However, I am concerned about the way things are run. We started discussing this just before noon. I received notice at 11.45 a.m. that my amendments were not allowed.

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: I hardly think that, but perhaps if some of the ideas that I clearly, consistently and cogently argued in this House had been listened to by previous Governments - and I would be happy to make whatever little groatsworth of wit I have available to the rest of Europe - we would not be in this mess. The Minister of State may look back and see what I said, and he may check to see whether I was...

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: I will leave it at that. I am not exaggerating myself and saying I am the great panjandrum who can solve the whole thing. I am not making that claim. I am just saying that if one looks back at the record of the House, one will find something very interesting. Perhaps it would have been useful if we had been allowed, not by the Parliament or by the parties but by the media, to discuss...

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: Not maybe; it will not be.

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: As long as it rescues the German banks.

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: If Sinn Féin does not, I will.

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: As somebody who was sentenced to death by the IRA 30 years ago, I find these consistent historical attacks on Sinn Féin boring beyond belief.

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: That was relevant.

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: I made that argument in this House.

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: I appreciate the Minister of State's sense of irony.

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: I will try to be brief by way of a series of bullet points. The Minister of State is persuasive, but I remember his former colleague from Fianna Fáil, the late Deputy Brian Lenihan, who was an old friend of mine, sitting in the Minister's seat and being equally persuasive and brilliant. I disagreed with him because I had analysed his language and want to do the same with the Minister of...

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: I live in the real world, which is not one where one who has no money promises to pay. As I stated yesterday, when the guarantee which has got us into the mess in which we find ourselves was before the House, I asked what the ultimate figure would be and was told it was €400 million. When I asked what was our gross national product, the officials did not know. They had to go out and make...

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: It strikes me as absurd if the insurance premium one has to pay exceeds the value of the items one is insuring. That is what we are in danger of doing. It is common sense. I encouraged the former Minister Charlie McCreevy when he said he was putting a little aside for a rainy day. It was nowhere near enough.

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: However, the process was not continued. At that stage I asked why we could not pay off the whole lot. I have never understood how countries can live eternally in each other's debt.

Seanad: European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: It may not have been right, but at least it was popular.