Results 13,201-13,220 of 20,831 for speaker:David Norris

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: Senator Ó Murchú has said he is disappointed. I am afraid he will be disappointed further by what I have to say. I agree 100% with Senator Bacik and do not think she said it half firmly enough.

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: The Senator was extremely restrained. I would like to comment on the language used during the debate on the amendment. I compliment the three gentlemen on the other side on their newly acquired, if specious, status of victimhood. They were politically astute when they jumped before they were pushed. If they had not been pushed, I had a loaded pistol and most certainly would have pulled...

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: Now I am a humbug.

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: I would like to say-----

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: Indeed.

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: I wish to make it clear that I think this is a mean-minded and thoroughly nasty amendment. Senator Ó Murchú presumed to tell me what those whom he inaccurately described as the bishops of the Protestant church believed on this issue. He got it wrong. I am a long-standing member of the Anglican church. Apparently, I cannot even stand by my own church. I know exactly how to interpret...

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: I shall try not to take up too much time on this but, with the greatest goodwill, bonhomie and tolerance-----

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: -----and speaking to the amendment, I wish to comment on the new title proposed by my colleague, Senator Mullen, "A modest proposal". I am not sure whether he is aware of the origin of that in a remarkable document by the late Dr. Jonathan Swift which was replete with irony. The whole point about the modest proposal was that it was one of the most sinister plots ever hatched. The Senator's...

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: With regard to the Senator's comments about any possible future career in politics I might have, I do not delude myself that I am President yet. However, one never knows. It is a possibility and in those circumstances I would know very much how to behave with people.

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: I merely include that little point. However, I wish to ask for guidance from the Chair on this matter. I take it we are to discuss all these amendments because they are grouped. Is that correct?

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: All right. That is fine. I am very happy to leave it at what the Minister had to say. I cannot speak for other people but I am a humble and totally imperfect member of the Anglican communion so I doubt if I can accurately be termed an aggressive secularist. However, I believe in the separation of church and state and just as I believe the state should be separated from the church so the...

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: I move amendment No. 2: In page 13, between lines 30 and 31, to insert the following: " "dependent child" means a person under the age of 18 years, or if the person has attained that age— (a) is a person who is or will be or, if an order were made under any Act providing for periodical payments for his or her support or for the provision of a lump sum for the child, would be receiving...

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: Yes. It is clear that the children of same-sex parents who enter into civil partnerships are greatly disadvantaged. I have tabled these amendments with the intention of starting the process of redressing this wrong. I believe, from the comments of the Minister in his speech earlier today, that it is his intention to address this at some stage. I was told there would be a vote on Second...

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: I must confess there is an element that I significantly left out in what I said, which was-----

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: Yes, very much so. It is a directly relevant element. It is the practical question of payment and financial support. That is in the first amendment. Some of the others deal with guardianship and so on. I am parking to one side the question of adoption and whether single parents are capable of doing the job or whether two parents are needed. I am just considering the question of...

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: I am just making a general point. I do not believe that the liberals are rushing headlong towards a liberal agenda or-----

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: ----- jumping the queue. It has been a very long queue - 2,000 years long. To try to ease up towards some resolution after 2,000 years is not jumping the queue at all.

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: I would never wish to do that.

Seanad: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009: Committee Stage (7 Jul 2010)

David Norris: I propose, with your permission a Chathaoirligh, to address some of the remarks the Minister has, most helpfully, made. I will be as brief as I can.