Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I second the request made by my colleague, Senator David Norris, that No. 6, Immigration (Reform) (Regularisation of Residency Status) Bill 2016, be taken before No. 1.

In recent days I have suffered from a condition of almost sudden deafness in one ear. The other one was never good. Yesterday afternoon I came into the House to participate in a debate on waste disposal and was appalled by what I saw. We had invited a Minister to come to address the issue of waste disposal and listen to our views and then proceeded to abuse and shout at him. It got to the stage where I could no longer tolerate the level of noise in the room and left. I was, therefore, denied an opportunity to speak about the issue yesterday. Incidentally, I would have supported Sinn Féin's position, but I was denied an opportunity to do so. That is something I did not experience in the previous Seanad and I did not experience it in my time chairing meetings at trade union level, both within the Teachers Union of Ireland and across the four teacher unions. We should never invite somebody to the House to shout at them. We give them all the stick they deserve on legislation. I see Senator Paudie Coffey looking at me. He took some stick in the previous Dáil-----