Order of Business - 18th February 2009

Order of Business - 18th Februry 2009
Senator David Norris: I sympathise with the Cathaoirleach’s situation with regard to the Order of Business. I made a suggestion yesterday that received widespread support from both sides of the House, namely, that we should have a special rolling debate on the economy. The Leader replied this was something to be taken up with the Committee on Procedure and Privileges. I asked my representative on that committee several times to take up this matter. Will the Leader inform the House when the Committee on Procedure and Privileges last met? Has it met since Christmas? Has it met since last autumn? How efficient is it? When will it meet to take up this matter? I wish to have a date put on the record of the House so we may know this matter will be dealt with. That is the channel I was told to approach because there was no point proceeding unless the matter is dealt with in that fashion.
We are discussing the banking crisis again and I do not wish to speak for very long about it. It interests me that the regulator was satisfied in this matter by a response from lawyers who were operating in the interests of Anglo Irish Bank. I would have thought that showed a conflict of interest.
Senator Alan Kelly: Hear, hear.
Senator David Norris: It looks now as if the advice given was either wrong or corrupt. I wish to know something about the lawyers in question and their status, about the advice they gave, why they gave it and whether it was good, bad, indifferent, or, indeed, corrupt. We need a real debate on the economy.
Today we hear that Bord Gáis is moving into the provision of electricity. Everybody is delighted because there will be a drop in the charge for electricity. The Leader fought valiantly for this but I do not believe this is necessarily a good idea. In the short or medium term it may be, but why is Bord Gáis doing this? We are told this is competition. What kind of competition is it when the ESB has its hands tied behind its back? When it applies for a reduction it is not allowed have one.
Senator Mary M. White: That is not the case.
Senator David Norris: The gas board goes in instead. We are attacking the fundamentals on which the wellbeing of this State originated, with people such as Lemass and Whitaker and the establishment of the semi-State bodies, Bord na Móna, Bord Gáis, the ESB and so on. We were always told about competition. Senator Leyden is quite right. We privatised Aer Lingus. What happened? Now we do not service our own airlines. I and others warned about this. Eircom was flogged off to Tony O’Reilly who asset-stripped it and took all the benefit out of it.
An Cathaoirleach: Questions to the Leader.
Senator David Norris: He did not invest one penny in it and flogged it off to an Australian pension fund. Let us look at competition. I voted against the groceries order. We were told prices would go down but they went up. All was a matter of competition. Let us not bow down before this shibboleth.
I say to the Leader, with the greatest respect, that he is not Tommy Dando. There is no sunny side of this particular street so he should not give us a recital of all the good things that are happening. Let us wait until they happen and let us help them to happen by debating this.
I propose a change to the Order of Business.
An Cathaoirleach: The Senator’s point is made.
Senator David Norris: We are to have statements on the Middle East. That is not what I requested. I asked for the passage of a motion that was passed unanimously a week ago by all members of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs. It proposed a war crimes investigation into the situation in Gaza.
I will not press this vote if the Leader will be kind enough to give me an assurance that this will not replace that debate. I was informed that the motion has been sent by that committee as a message to both the Dáil and Seanad. There is no reason we should not pass it. I am trying to strengthen the hand of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I shall call a vote unless I get an undertaking from the Leader that we will have a debate about this specific matter, within a week, if possible. It will waste time but the motion was passed by all parties. Fianna Fáil supported it. The Department has no difficulty with it. I accepted amendments to it. I ask for that assurance. Otherwise I regret I shall waste another ten minutes by calling a vote.
An Cathaoirleach: Senator Norris opposes the Order of Business. Is that what he said?
Senator David Norris: No, I beg the Cathaoirleach’s pardon and thank him for his assistance. I suggested that we take instead the motion in my name about the war crimes tribunal in Gaza.
An Cathaoirleach: Is it motion No. 32?
Senator David Norris: Yes, it is No. 32 which is the exact one passed by the committee.
An Cathaoirleach: On a point of clarification, the procedure for submitting motions from committee is that a copy of the motion is sent by the committee to the Leader’s office. It is then printed on the Order Paper in the Leader’s name. This motion was not submitted in that manner but has been included in the Private Members’ motion at Senator Norris’s request.