David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I utterly condemn the atrocious murders of a young Jordanian pilot and a Japanese journalist who was motivated by service to the community. These events continue to spark off Islamophobia on the one hand and anti-Semitism on the other. They are an inevitable by-product of British and American meddling in the Middle East. If one kicks a wasp's nest, one can only expect to get stung. There is something morally repulsive about the way these people set about their crimes. There is no political or religious justification whatever for them. I wonder whether the Jordanians were wise to respond immediately by executing two unrelated prisoners. I am not sure such a knee-jerk reaction is a good idea. This activity thrives on publicity and the media in the West need to be sensitive and careful about the way in which it treats these incidents. By giving them headline publicity and including photographs in reports and so on, it simply justifies ISIS. This is what the organisation is after. It can get around apparent censorship by the use of Twitter and so on but that suggests there should be in the West a co-ordinated campaign on Twitter and other social media to counteract this material in the international media.

With regard to the Bill on alcohol to which a previous contributor referred, it is welcome but it is late. Ministers have been sitting on this for the past six years at least and the legislation has been very much watered down. There will not be a ban on alcohol sponsorship of sport and the drinks industry knows precisely what it is doing when it uses sport to advertise its products. It is not just about a healthy sip of a drink; it is about a boozy boy's club and getting absolutely plastered. That is what is endorsed in these advertisements. I very much welcome the ban on below cost selling, which is an absolute curse. I witness this in my area where women with prams load up with trays of tins and so on, which is dreadful. We must have a debate on this matter to address alcohol abuse. I am all in favour of people enjoying a drink, a good wine, a good glass of Irish whiskey or a Guinness, in so far as it is still Irish, but we have to address the social reasons for alcohol abuse and the endorsement of drunkenness that is so prevalent in this society.