David Norris (Independent)

The Seanad is honoured today by the presence of Dr. Nada Dhaif in the Visitors Gallery. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland has dishonoured the name of Ireland by its inaction and the fact it dismissed some of its graduates in Bahrain at the instigation of the Bahrainian authorities. That is absolutely reprehensible and it should be held to account by public opinion for this. Dr. Dhaif is a woman of quite exemplary courage. There is a principle involved here, namely, that doctors are required by the Hippocratic oath to assist people, regardless of where they come from or what side they are on. Doctors and nurses are neutral; they treat the wounded. We had a horrible example in this country of Jean McConville who was murdered by the IRA simply for giving a glass of water to a British soldier. That was her right as a human being. We must make a strong protest, in particular in light of the fact that the motivation of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland seems to be to protect its investment of €17 million. That is not a sufficient reason. The same is true of Britain. It has said nothing because it is involved in gigantic arms sales to Bahrain and I am against that too. I would like an end to the silence of the Irish Government on this matter.

I wish to raise a matter raised last week by Senator van Turnhout and supported by others who commended the PSNI and the Garda for a series of raids on what were described as "brothels", the action we were told was against trafficking and so on. I am glad to say I entered a hesitation about this because in this week's Sunday Independent Jim Cusack, who is a very highly respected writer and who has been writing for a long time on criminal matters, indicated that as many as half of the residences raided in Northern Ireland were not brothels and had no connection with prostitution and that in some cases it was done with invalid warrants. One of the apartments in which the door was smashed down belonged to a young woman journalist and her partner who is a barrister. They had nothing whatever to do with prostitution. In another case, a door was smashed down and the officer involved telephoned the young woman who owned the apartment at work and implied she was involved in prostitution. She was rightly horrified.

It is a very serious situation in legal terms for the PSNI. I understand the Garda is embarrassed about this situation and is concerned about the publicity generated.