David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The man gave advice. Anyone giving advice with a bludgeon visible behind him and carrying a blunderbuss in the other hand, one would be inclined to take his or her advice. He said that he said nothing about the bondholders, but he did say the world knew and every central banker knew. Why did he keep his mouth shut? Does anyone believe he kept his mouth shut? I certainly do not. The late Brian Lenihan is on record as saying that he was told by the ECB that he could not burn the bondholders. Mr. Trichet said there was no phone call and that he does not know how he spun such a line. I do not believe Mr. Trichet, nor do I believe a single solitary word from his mouth. It is time we analysed what he did have to say in this country. Basically, it appears that he changed his mind. He told Brian Lenihan in the morning that he could burn the bondholders but by the evening he said no he could not, but that was to save the German and French banks. Of course it was; even an idiot could see that.

On the continuing saga of the referendum, there was more debate on it on television last night. The "Yes" side put up a fine performance but I did not know where the "No" side were coming from because there was a lot of guff spoken about single fathers. Apparently, there are 500,000 of them according to Mr. Waters, which sounds a bit odd but I do not know. I am not guilty. I am not a single father. The participants spoke about equality and said everyone should relax because there were equality provisions in the Constitution. Indeed, there are. I know about them, do I not? They were there when I sued this country on the subject of the criminalisation of homosexual behaviour between adults in private. Those equality provisions existed but they did not prevent the High Court and the Supreme Court saying that despite these equality provisions, there was nothing whatever wrong with putting persons like myself in jail for periods ranging between ten years to life imprisonment. How much use were the equality provisions on that occasion?