Order of Business - 28th November 2006

Order of Business – Tuesday 28th November 2006
Mr. Norris: I join my colleagues in seeking a debate on the siting of the new children's hospital. I raised this matter some time ago on the Order of Business, well in advance of the Government's decision on the matter. What I asked for then is what is now being sought, an international review of the siting. Quite a number of consultants from the different hospitals are seeking such a review. While the Mater Hospital is my neighbour, and I do not wish to be unneighbourly, the site may in the long term may be too small with inadequate car-parking, access problems and no maternity facility. We should examine this choice of site again. I was assured such a review would take less than six weeks. The six weeks have elapsed and I regret that, perhaps as has been suggested, this course of action was not taken for political reasons.
I call for a debate on human rights in China. Senator O'Toole and I, over a considerable period, have raised the matter of organ harvesting in China. Last week this was raised at the committee on foreign affairs with a presentation from Mr. David Kilgour, a senior Canadian politician and former Secretary of State for Asian affairs who speaks with some authority. His report was worrying. Telephone traffic has been monitored in which orders were placed for livers and kidneys by people in Japan and elsewhere. It was like a butcher's shop with spare parts for purchase. While this has always been denied, various reports in today's newspapers quote a senior Chinese official accepting organ harvesting occurred but that it was only from executed prisoners. We take a view of the execution of people and the harvesting of organs. It is claimed it is voluntary but it is very difficult to be involuntary when one has a bullet in the back of one's neck.

An Leas-Chathaoirleach: Is the Senator looking for a debate?

Mr. Norris: Yes. This statement highlights a clear discrepancy. If the Chinese authorities only harvested the organs of every single person executed, almost 1,600, then how can they explain the discrepancy of many thousands of organs being harvested? It is believed that members of Falun Gong are kept alive - almost as if in cold storage - awaiting an organ order and then callously murdered. It is a revolting and disgusting practice.
Will the Leader ask the Minister for Transport to give some guidelines on the new provisions introduced by the EU on what one can and cannot take on board an aircraft? Yesterday afternoon on an internal flight to Cork, I lost a quarter of a tube of toothpaste. On the return journey, I lost a canister with less than a quarter of an inch of-----

Mr. Leyden: Shaving cream?

Mr. Norris: -----mouth wash. I was told that even though it was less than 100 ml, it was the container that was the danger. Yet one can buy a large bottle of water to carry on board. What was the problem with the container? Did they think I would go into the cabin and squirt the toothpaste in the pilot's eye, take over the plane and land it on the White House? It is absurd.
Will the Leader ask the Taoiseach, whom we all respect, to at last declare war on terrorism and diplomatically isolate the two principal terrorists on the planet, Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair? It is only when their activities are contained and the situation in the Middle East is resolved that we will not have to take these absurd travel precautions.