Order of Business - 17th April 2008

Order of Business - 17th April 2008
Senator David Norris: I thank my colleague Senator O’Toole for raising the custody case. It
is extremely important and it is a reproach to this House. We had the relevant Bill, prepared
by myself and Senator Bacik, on the Order Paper for four years. It went into every committee.
The Government raised questions and some of these questions have been now answered by
the learned judge, Mr. Justice Hedigan, who stated — it is important to put this on record —
that there was nothing in Irish law to suggest that a family of two women and an child “has
any lesser right to be recognised as a de facto family than a family composed of a man and
woman unmarried to each other”. The judge stressed the absence of any provisions securing
the rights of this de facto family under article 8 securing the rights——
An Cathaoirleach: I do not want people reading the newspapers on the Order of Business.
Senator David Norris: I insist on doing so and I will say why. Several people read speeches
from beginning to end prepared by Government advisers and I want to accurately put on the
record the reproach of this distinguished judge to this House for not doing what it should have
done. I want to get it right and I do not mean any disrespect; I am being accurate. The judge
stated that it is something that calls for urgent consideration by the legislators. That is what I
want to put on the record and this addresses directly one of the matters referred to by Senator
Boyle as being a subject of contention within the Cabinet, namely, the right to adopt and the
rights of children within these families. In the Zappone case in the High Court evidence was
given by Professor Patricia Casey which used Swedish research. It is extremely important to
put on the record that the authors of that Swedish research have written to the newspaper
stating this was an inappropriate use of this research and that the conclusions drawn by Professor Casey and given as evidence in the court were inaccurate. I hope this will be taken into
consideration when this important matter is considered. Can I raise——
An Cathaoirleach: On that point, will the Senator give the source newspaper from which he
is quoting?
Senator David Norris: I beg your pardon, The Irish Times. The newspaper of record and the
only newspaper that records the doings of this House.
An Cathaoirleach: Enough said about that now.
Senator David Norris: I welcome the fact that the Department of Foreign Affairs has issued
a statement supporting Mr. Michael Semple a distinguished diplomat who has recently had
some turbulence in his career and who is accused by certain media sources here of being a
spook and a spy, quoting low grade British newspapers in so doing. I hope the statement of
support contains information stating that he most definitely was not a spy. The only difficulty
is — this is something that is apparently quite foreign to the American authorities — he had
an acquaintance with the local languages, Pashto and the other Afghani dialects. I welcome
this statement.
I strongly support my colleague Senator Ross. I have listened to him with interest over many
years. I am not gifted in the area of economy but I do recall him talking of insider trading.
Unlike Senator Walsh, I think it is 100% appropriate that we support the decision of the court
because that is what was being done. We have a decision; this was insider trading. There was
an excellent article by Mr. Vincent Browne in The Irish Times yesterday which describes it
appropriately as theft.
An Cathaoirleach: Will the Senator please speak through the Chair and to the Leader?
Senator David Norris: Through the Chair to the Leader, this should be left on the record of
the House. In possession of information that their shares were on a decline, some of these
gentlemen went around the world on what they called roadshows flogging the thing. They were
selling something they knew to be practically valueless to unfortunate people. That is theft and
the amounts involved were \80 million, twice the amount involved in the Northern Bank robbery, about which we got so steamed up. It is extraordinary to think that in this country we
send people to jail for not paying their television licences and somebody can get away with \80
million of loot and get only a little slap on the wrist. That is an incitement of crime and Senator
Ross is perfectly right to raise the question of a debate on the financial regulatory system. Well
done to him.