Order of Business - 25th February 2009

Order of Business - 25th February 2009
Senator David Norris: I have a good deal sympathy for the Cathaoirleach because he does his best but the situation here is highlighted by the fact that virtually every day he must call Members on the Order of Business who were not heard the previous day. Why does the Leader continually resist attempts to regulate the Order of Business in the interests of the House in order that we can have a full and proper discussion? Everybody knows he is standing up against this but many Government Members would support an expansion of the Order of Business. The Leader should get off the fence and he should not refer——

An Cathaoirleach: That is a matter for the Committee on Procedures and Privileges. The Senator should put a question to the Leader.

Senator David Norris: When will the Leader stop talking about the CPP? When did it last meet? My information is it last met in November 2008. Let us have action and leadership and not frustration.
Radio broadcasts of proceedings have stopped completely. It is not surprising the only business every reported on television or in newspapers is the Order of Business. Today, The Irish Times columnist, Miriam Lord, had precisely three times the column inches of the column devoted to the collective wisdom of the Seanad. It is the Leader’s responsibility with the other officers to make sure we get proper attention and we get a proper way to give our views.
I refer to the issue of the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment’s interview, which I also heard and which should be discussed. We need leadership. President Obama was splendid. He said America would have to face this day of reckoning and so on. Half the time what we got from the Tánaiste was not even English. She talked about the need for “strident government”. We might need prudent government but we do not need strident government. She talked about “a percentile increase”. I do not know what is a percentile increase. I never heard of it. I taught English for 30 years and I do not know what she was talking about.
I accept there is a little movement and the Director of Corporate Enforcement has sent in gardaí. They can recover some of the information from the hard drives of computers. One of the great things is all is not lost. The bankers can have shredded what they like but we can still get at information. However, I am worried that the banks are still at it.

Senator Jerry Buttimer: Hear, hear.

Senator David Norris: They are still flogging and advertising 1% below cost mortgages. What will occur when the amount increases? More people will be trapped. Yesterday, a friend received an unsolicited offer of a loan worth €9,000 from a bank. What is the bank at?
Last weekend, we discovered that the former Taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald, retired from a hedge fund. Hello? While he was doing that, another former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, was receiving €10,000 in Tegucigalpa for discussing the Celtic tiger.

An Cathaoirleach: Questions to the Leader on the Order of Business.

Senator David Norris: Have we any sense of what is occurring? Not for one minute is it acceptable to respond to calls for national cohesion by saying that, in Alan Dukes’s time, it was a minority Government.

Senator Frances Fitzgerald: Exactly.

Senator David Norris: No, that is wrong. What difference does it make whether something was a minority Government?

An Cathaoirleach: Please, Senator. Questions to the Leader.

Senator David Norris: We are in a crisis and the Government, whatever it is, should be supported if it is doing the right thing.

Senator Terry Leyden: Dead on.

An Cathaoirleach: On the Order of Business.

Senator Fidelma Healy Eames: It is a matter of “if”.

Senator David Norris: May we revert to the backbench subject of embryo stem cell research? Youth Defence is on the trot again. As if it was not bad enough, it is putting out dangerous, dishonest and misleading advertisements to the effect that 73 cures have been developed using adult stem cells while none has been developed using embryo stem cells. Some people have spent tens of thousands of euro. An unfortunate woman from Scotland who came to Ireland was injected with umbilical cord stem cells, but they made no difference. How dare these blackguards mislead people and abuse science? Let us have a real debate in the House.

An Cathaoirleach: Point made.