David Norris (Independent)

I am glad Senator Alex White raised the Refugee Appeals Tribunal; I have been raising it over a considerable period. I concur with the Senator's remarks. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform must come to the House, urgently, to answer a series of question on it. In the Nyembo case, in which three refugees sought redress in the courts, there was a judgment from the Supreme Court. In that judgment, Miss Justice Denham said that a statement from the chairman of the tribunal had stated, "The record of the second-named respondent [Mr. Nicholson] is not at variance with other members of the first-named respondent [the tribunal]. However," she commented, "there is no evidence in the affidavits filed on behalf of the respondents vindicating [this] assertion."

We now know that the members of the tribunal protested vigorously to the chairman and requested a meeting with him, which was denied. They then had a meeting themselves at which a letter was composed. The House should take seriously what was in the letter, which stated, "The legal strategy being adopted in these proceedings conveys the impression that the tribunal needs to hide and conceal the manner in which it does its business. The tribunal also continues to proceed in this manner without any consultation with its members, without seeking their approval, and without even affording the courtesy of an explanation to them as to why this course of action is being relentlessly pursued." It continued that there was "a widespread and increasingly public perception that cases have been allocated to members of the tribunal" with a track record of refusing refugee applicants. This letter is from members of the tribunal and was written by, among others, a former Member of this House who is also a former senior Cabinet Minister, member of the Fianna Fáil Party and a former Director of Public Prosecutions.

The most serious aspect of this is the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill which is due to come before the House. Section 137 of that Bill proposes that the current chairman of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal should automatically become the chairman of the next tribunal. That is astonishing. We must demand an explanation. This is somebody whose statement to the Supreme Court has been shown to be wrong, the implication from the judgment clearly being that it was deliberately wrong. That is perjury, and we are discussing automatically re-appointing a person in this position who does not have the confidence of the serving members. The House is entitled to an explanation.

I welcome the proposed debate on the pharmacy issue later today. I do not wish to trespass on that time but I wish to bring a constituency matter to the attention of the Acting Leader. I have been contacted by the School of Pharmacy on an aspect of the dispute that might get lost in the debate. Graduates of the School of Pharmacy in Trinity College, and presumably of the other colleges, are required to do a type of intern course for six months in community pharmacies. Due to the delay and the legal action, it appears unlikely that this year's cohort will be able to do this and, as a result, will not be in a position to become fully qualified. We will be short a complete cohort of pharmacists in 2009 and graduates will be unable to take up positions. That is a serious matter.

I support Senator Leyden's comments. I could not believe that an Israeli Minister would use the word shoah and threaten to visit it upon the Palestinian people. Another Minister said that Israel was using the army to deliver a message to Hamas. It is shameful to use it. Among the 120 Palestinian victims, as opposed to the three victims on the Israeli side which we all regret, four were small children playing football. That is not the way to deliver a message in a civilised community.