Seanad debates

Wednesday, 10 July 2019

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

10:30 am

Photo of David NorrisDavid Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

As my Fianna Fáil colleague has done, I welcome the decision of the UK Government to introduce an abortion regime in the North of Ireland and also its gay rights initiative on marriage equality. It is significant because Jeff Dudgeon, for example, won a historic case - before I won mine - in the European Court of Human Rights. The North was in advance of us at that stage and it is regrettable that this has been let lie. Regarding abortion, 80% of the people in Northern Ireland approve of the regime that is being introduced, so there is no question of it being undemocratic. They have had years to deal with this and they have not done so. With regard to equal marriage, the gay pride march is enormously bigger than the Orange march in Belfast, so that tells us where people's hearts lie on this matter.

I wish to return to something I said yesterday. We were discussing the use of the Seanad Chamber. I fully approve of Travellers and I have a track record in the area. However, I do not approve of subsidiary sections dislodging the proper business of the Seanad. The heckling from the Leader dislodged me from a point I was trying to make, namely, that one of the important points that was being debated at the time was the non-representation in the Oireachtas of the Traveller community. I speak from experience; it took me ten years and six elections, including by-elections to get elected, because people were suspicious of me. Travellers are a minority and, sadly, they are not universally popular. It will take quite a while to get somebody from the Traveller community elected to Seanad Éireann. I strongly suggest that after the next election the Taoiseach of the day, whoever he or she is, make a deliberate decision to appoint somebody from that community as a first stage. I have a candidate in mind, namely, Rosaleen McDonagh, who is not only a Traveller and a very effective spokeswoman for Travellers, but she is also handicapped. She is in a wheelchair. It would be good for this House to have somebody in a wheelchair. We would have to listen very carefully to what that person said. Ms McDonagh ran a number of times for a seat on the Trinity panel and she did quite well but she never got to the point where it was realistic for her to become a Senator. She is somebody who deserves consideration to be nominated by the Taoiseach as a voice for the Traveller community in Ireland.

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