David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yes I have. We rest with the position that the legislation itself is unconstitutional because it represents an attack on existing families. To return to the question of legal advice, Attorneys General are conservative by nature and they give the most timid of advice. The Minister of State has said - or perhaps it was Senator Naughton - that a preponderance of legal opinion is in favour of the Government's position but it is not. That is why I spent some time putting the case from the United Nations, the European court and so forth. An overwhelming preponderance of international opinion is behind those of us who believe that forcing people to divorce is simply morally wrong. Why do we not pass the Bill and let it take its chances? Let Michael D. Higgins, Uachtaráin na hÉireann, call the Council of State together and refer it to the Supreme Court. That would be a very good way of settling the matter.

I wish to express my great gratitude to Senator Mooney for his completely unjustified celebration of my various talents. I am well aware of my misdoings and the fact that I sometimes walk on peoples' corns but there are occasions when those corns deserve a bloody good walking on. The Iona Institute is one such body and I will not take back a single syllable of what I said. These are unelected people who refuse to disclose their accounts to the Standards in Public Office Commission. They just tell the commission to bugger off. That is what they say and they get away with it.