David Norris (Independent)

I wish to raise an issue on which the Chair allowed Senator Harris to make a lengthy intervention a week or so ago. It is a matter of great importance to standards of honesty, decency and justice in this country. It is fundamental to the well-being of a number of people in Ireland and abroad. I hope the Chair will allow me a gracious degree of latitude. I refer to the film, "Fairytale of Kathmandu", which purports to document the exploitation of young men in Nepal by the Donegal poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh. Having seen this work, I have grave concerns about the motives and methods employed. It is proposed to transmit the film on RTE tonight. As public money has been spent on the film, we are entitled to know the truth wherever it leads. Therefore, I call for its exhibition to be postponed until a full investigation by those qualified in the analysis of film has established the truth or falsehood of the techniques used in its production and the conclusions reached in it. The correct forum for such an investigation is the Joint Committee on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.

An attempt has been made to create such a firestorm of hostile publicity that justice may never retrospectively be done. This film was selectively leaked to quarters where, it was calculated, it would do most damage and most dangerously inflame opinion. The subject of the film has been tried, sentenced and crucified already. What of the youths involved? Despite pious protests, they have been most callously exposed in a dangerously homophobic society and then left to sink or swim on their own. I am aware of the existence of a smear campaign against anyone who dares to raise his or her voice to ask these questions. I am aware also of the possible damage that may be caused to my standing in the community I love. I have chosen to make this intervention in what I consider to be the most appropriate place — the free Parliament of the Irish people — because I love justice and truth even more than I fear any misunderstanding of my motives in so doing.

While it has been denied, it is clear that systematic creative editing has taken place. For example, the most disturbing image in the film is a sequence showing Mr. Ó Searcaigh lovingly straightening the tie of what appears to be a 14 or 15 year old schoolboy with a satchel on his back. While Narang is indeed boyish looking, he is a 20 year old physics student in a third level college. His words need to be heard. He was over the age of 18 when the film was made. In an interview voluntarily given, he alleges he was told he had been abandoned by Cathal Ó Searcaigh. He was naturally angry. He claims to have been pressurised into giving the answers the film-makers wanted. He has since said: "They make me say things, they twist their questions and make me say Cathal was not a good man". Is Narang's voice to be smothered? The owner of the copyright has never been contacted for permission to use extracts from Mr. Ó Searcaigh's poetry in the film. He has now refused permission for the broadcast of material to which he owns the copyright.