Order of Business - 13th June 2006

Order of Business – 13th June 2006

Mr. Norris: I wish to refer to something I said about RTE last week. I stated, with the support of other Members, that it had not covered debates in this House. Since then, I have been informed that while it had done so, it had changed the broadcasting time, which did not appear in the newspapers. It is important to withdraw that criticism.
However, I wish to replace it with a different criticism, which concerns the new
programme scheduling. It proposes to remove programmes like John Kelly's
"Mystery Train", which is a distinguished and unique form of broadcasting and
which brought people's attention to groups such as the Buena Vista Social Club,
of which they would not otherwise have heard. I also refer to broadcasters such
as John Creedon, that inimitable voice, Val Joyce, as well as Myles Dungan's
arts programme. There is a legitimate interest in this regard, because RTE is a
national broadcaster. While I am happy to pay the licence fee, I do not see why I
should do so, simply to get another music and blather station.

Mr. Ryan: Hear, hear.

Mr. Norris: Members want a real national broadcaster and ought to support RTE in its provision of its traditional kind of distinguished coverage of the arts and other interests.

I also wish to raise the issue of Guantanamo Bay, especially in the light of the
suicides of three inmates. They were astonishingly described by an official –
whose own title, namely, the person with responsibility for political diplomacy,
poses some questions - as a public relations stunt. It was some stunt and I doubt
whether the official herself would be inclined to engage in such a stunt. It
showed astonishing disrespect to so describe it. Moreover, I was amazed at the
governor of the prison, who stated that it was an act of aggression against the
United States and that it constituted asymmetrical warfare. He was correct in
that the action could not have been more asymmetrical. It involved one
imprisoned, shackled and tightly controlled person in his pyjamas against a
nuclear power which has no scruples in respect of torture. That is certainly
asymmetrical. However, it begs a series of questions and I am glad that the
Government has at last woken up to what is happening at Shannon Airport. That
issue will probably be a matter for tomorrow night's Private Members' debate.
The Government has called in the American ambassador because a civilian aircraft with more than 100 military personnel and a prisoner in shackles has been discovered. I congratulate the whistleblower, the cleaning lady, who made the discovery. A cleaning lady, or even a garda disguised as a cleaning lady, who boarded some of the other aeroplanes might not have found someone in shackles, but would have found the shackles. I am glad the House will debate this issue tomorrow night.

In addition, the House should have a wider debate on the Middle East, in the
light of the bombing of a beach in Gaza, in which there were seven civilian
casualties, as well as the apparent descent of Palestine into civil war. It has
been stirred up and is the direct responsibility of all those countries, including
Ireland, which meanly held back money from the suffering people of Palestine,
although they did nothing whatever about the human rights violations or the
implementation of the human rights protocols attached to the external association
agreement between Israel and the European Union.