Order of Business - 11th October 2007

Order of Business – 11th October 2007
Senator David Norris: I second the non-contentious
proposal by my colleague, Senator O’Toole,
for a change to the Order of Business. I commend
Mr. Justice Carney. I listened to the broadcast
this morning and read the text of his speech. I
thought it was sensitive, measured and judicious.
It raised a number of extremely important points
that we should debate. It was the right forum. It
was a lecture and he held off on speaking last
year because of the sensitive nature of the case.
It took courage to do that because of the public
sympathy for the suffering of the families
involved but he made the point that because of
the unscripted nature of the remarks at the end
of that statement, it had a serious negative impact
on the intention of his judgment which was to
permit the other young man, Wayne
O’Donoghue, to look towards the reconstruction
of a shattered life.
He also made points, which were well made,
about the intervention of the media, particularly
about the its sensational elements. The Government
appears to wish to reintroduce the Defamation
Bill and the Privacy Bill is on the Order
Paper. A press ombudsman has been appointed.
We have a press council, even though the Bill was
discarded. Would the existence of the press
ombudsman or the press council have stopped
that? I do not believe so.
I agree with Senator Fitzgerald about the
situation regarding the health service and ask for
a debate on that. I, too, am aware of the case of
the stroke victim she mentioned. Another case of
a stroke victim, who has been reduced from a full
regime of physiotherapy to three hours, been
drawn to my attention. On the morning this man
was to be transferred to a nursing home, the
family were told, just as they were expecting the
ambulance to take him, that it would not happen
because the funding had been withdrawn. It is
unconscionable that Government spokespersons
maintain there is no impact on patients. I cannot
think of a more catastrophic impact than that.