Results 11,461-11,480 of 20,831 for speaker:David Norris

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.

Seanad: Order of Business (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: I refer to phrases such as "tails up" and "ready-up". Is this the civilised debate we will have?

Seanad: Order of Business (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: What is that noise? Is the Titanic sinking?

Seanad: Order of Business (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: Senator Mullen's honeyed words put me in mind of the fact that in recent days the Vatican has appointed the Rome correspondent of Fox News, who is also a member of Opus Dei, as their chief spin doctor. I welcome a debate but I remind the House that coating poison with honey does not make it any more palatable. In his very thoughtful speech, Senator Bradford said that the control of language...

Seanad: Order of Business (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: I know a lot about that but I would prefer to leave it to the debate.

Seanad: Order of Business (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: I am asking for a reasoned debate where people's experience is allowed to be placed on the record without the kind of bullying and colonisation of language that has occurred so lamentably previously. There is a great difference between what has been allowed already under our Constitution and the taking by force of a woman who is seven months pregnant and forcibly aborting the child in her...

Seanad: Order of Business (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: It is not in the Senator's nature.

Seanad: Order of Business (27 Jun 2012)

David Norris: Hear, hear.

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 Communities (Amendment) Bill 2012: Second Stage (26 Jun 2012)

David Norris: I also welcome the Tánaiste to the House. I do not envy him his role in government. It is an especially difficult time for anybody in government and must be very wearying. I am, by nature, a contrarian. I remember P.G. Wodehouse describing himself as a performing flea of English literature. I suppose I fulfil the role of a gadfly in Irish politics. I will not repeat everything I said...

Seanad: European Communities (Amendment) Bill 2012: Second Stage (26 Jun 2012)

David Norris: I see the Senator is dressed in black, which is so appropriate. She has abandoned wearing red; wearing black is more appropriate.