David Norris (Independent)

I seek guidance from the Chair — I am afraid I am rather confused. Where am I? Am I on a little island called Ireland or am I, as I increasingly suspect, on the flying island of Laputa, described by the late Dean Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels? I ask partly because of the matter raised by Senator Fitzgerald. The Markets in Financial Instruments and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2007, which will be considered by this House later today, seemed innocuous — we thought it would not do any great harm. However, a measure has been slipped into the Bill, with wonderfully sly sleight of political hand, to assist one of our own. I accept that the former Minister, Deputy Woods, is so distressed by poverty that he overlooked the fact that he had not claimed his pension for two years — one can quite understand that, just as one can understand the eagerness of the Irish taxpayer to reward the person who saved the Roman Catholic Church hundreds of millions of euro, at the expense of taxpayers. It is inevitable that this country's grateful taxpayers are keen to contribute to the former Minister. I have in my possession a letter that was sent to me by a constituent — a humble worker in a dental practice — who has been disbarred for receiving social welfare provisions, such as a pension, because she is employed by her husband. I wonder how she feels this morning.