David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Senator Butler. I had an experience once. I was stationary in a line of traffic on the East Link Bridge. The driver of an articulated lorry had not seen my car because it is low slung. The lorry came and crashed into the side of it. It is on video. The people in the box saw it. I reported it. The insurance company paid €1,100 for my car to be repaired. My insurance company never went after the person. Those responsible simply left it. They ignored it. It was desperate stuff.

I was interested to hear Sinn Féin raising the question of the Bank of Ireland and the way in which the bank has bowed to pressure from the Israelis to cancel the account of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. This is absolutely appalling. Now we have the new Israeli ambassador apparently saying he cannot guarantee that the Israeli secret services will not use Irish passports in assassination attempts. I am relying on newspaper reports for this. Anyway, it is horrendous. The Israeli ambassador should be called in and given a pretty severe talking to.

I propose to put down a motion critical of the Bank of Ireland for doing this, and I hope Sinn Féin will support it. It is extraordinarily undemocratic. This bank was rescued by the taxpayers of Ireland. It is acting in this arbitrary and undemocratic manner. It is a relatively uncontroversial thing. We are not criticising the Israelis. It is up to them if they want to put pressure on - that is their right. However, for an Irish bank to accede to it is disgraceful. I call on the Leader to consider giving time, even for an hour, to pass this as a measure of protest, although I need some time to formulate the motion. By the way, I apologise in advance. I may not hear what the Leader has to say because I have to do a radio interview, but I will try to get back in time.