Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to be associated with the expression of best wishes to Jimmy Harte and his family and the welcome extended to Senator Máiría Cahill. I welcome the Senator to the practice of the vocation of politics, which is how the former Taoiseach, Mr. John Bruton, described politics last night at the launch of his book, Faith in Politics. As one would expect from Mr. Bruton, he made a very interesting speech in which he stated that the purpose of politics was to deal with problems that are intractable. If there were only problems that were capable of a technical resolution, we would not need politics, he added.

That said, one hears the best and worst from the mouths of politicians. Senator Norris spoke for every sensible person when he referred to the media treatment of a former politician last week. Sadly, many of us started off being curious and only later reflected on the horror of what was happening to the individual in question. I also regret that a Member of the European Parliament from the Government side stated on the Marian Finucane programme that he thought the leak came from people on the "No" side in the recent referendum. It is highly regrettable that he made that statement without any substantiation.

We then had comments from Deputies Mick Wallace and Clare Daly in the wake of what happened in Paris. While the comments were harmless enough in themselves in that they are only talk, they were untrue and quite unhelpful. The idea that demilitarisation by western powers would somehow lead to peace is taking us to a fool's paradise. It is a dangerously misleading and futile attempt by western minds to make the pain, fear and uncertainty of what happened on Friday, 13 November somehow capable of being explained away. Pope Francis has spoken about a third world war being waged piecemeal. The frightening thing is that the attacks on Friday were not unexpected. The only things we did not know were the time and place. Tragically, this movement of misguided idealists has beguiled enough young people in many countries to believe in its particular understanding of Islam.It is not just the great military powers that should be concerned. Even the small neutral countries which pride themselves on their ability to talk to the strong and weak together must be worried about the future we all face. We must look at that head on.