Order of Business - 1st March 2007

Order of Busines – 1st March 2007
Mr. Norris: May I send my sympathies to the
voters of south Tipperary? This tirade is but the
beginning.
I refer to the matter of Mr. Appleby, which was
raised again by my colleague, Senator O’Toole. I
very much agree with him and believe the language
used by the Taoiseach that Mr. Appleby
would have to stand in line and could not be
moved up the queue was extraordinarily cavalier
and dismissive, particularly as the Taoiseach has
had to answer questions about business practice,
blank cheques and so on and has had to acknowledge
that, as an accountant, he did not behave in
the way he should have. We need to be very careful
about the standard of behaviour in terms of
business life.
I call for a debate on drugs. Mr. Gay Byrne was
extremely courageous in what he said. I have said
similar things in this House over a number of
years and I recall John O’Connell, when he was
health spokesman for Fianna Fa´ il, state that the
case for legalising drugs such as heroin, which he
supported, needed to be examined. I agree with
that. We must legalise, control and regulate.
However, this cannot be done by a small country
like Ireland on its own. All we can do is initiate
the debate. This House would be a good place to
do so because there would be various views.
There would be people who would strongly disagree
with this point of view but at least we would
place the issues before the public in an intelligent
way. However, this is not being done on various
radio programmes.
I heard a very decent woman, who is head of
an anti-drugs agency, state on Pat Kenny’s radio
programme that the driving of someone who
smoked one joint would be seriously impaired
three months later. That is simply not true. One
might find microscopically detectable traces of
that substance. However, the debate is not
advanced by this type of nonsense. There are two
719 Order of 1 March 2007. Business 720
[Mr. Norris.]
sides to the argument and Seanad E´ ireann would
be the appropriate place in which to make them.
I refer to affordable housing which the Leader
said yesterday we might have the opportunity to
address. Two other aspects have since been
drawn to my attention. A number of the major
banking institutions refuse loans if they discover
the object of the loan is to acquire an affordable
house. This is wrong and the Government should
say to financial institutions that if they are making
these enormous profits, they have a social
responsibility to make loans available to the more
vulnerable members of society.
In the Dublin area, affordable houses are allocated
by a series of draws. That may well be fair
but it is done in a very obscure way. People who
have applied for a house never know when, or if,
the draws have taken place or whether they have
got a house until they hear through the rumour
mill that somebody’s sister or cousin has got one.
The process must be much more open and clear
so we know the system is being administered
fairly. I am not saying it is being administered
unfairly but it is being administered obscurely
and inefficiently.