Order of Business - 16th February 2010

Order of Business - 16th February 2010
Senator David Norris: Mr. Michael O’Leary is a very flamboyant, brilliant businessman. If he can create jobs in Ireland, everybody will welcome them. However, it seems more likely that he wants to play with Aer Lingus’s toys and apparently he is in a temper because he cannot do so. The hangar he wants, hangar No. 6, has been specially designed to take wide-bodied, transatlantic aircraft which Mr. O’Leary does not possess. It makes me wonder, if he is so anxious to create jobs here, why he did not submit a tender when this first emerged. Thank God for independent radio, both RTE and Newstalk, on which there was commentary. If we had only seen what was carried in the newspapers and listened to politicians’ reactions, we would have thought Mr. O’Leary was 100% right, but he obviously is not.

I ask the Leader for a debate on morality in public life.


Senator Eoghan Harris: Is that right?


Senator David Norris: Yes, I believe it is necessary. I was thinking, my dear Senator friend and colleague, of Albert Reynolds’s little line that it was the little things that tripped one up. One could invert this and consider the whole question of proportionality and size, for example, the banks which are too big to fail and the little people who pay tax.

With regard to Greece, Goldman Sachs, an enormous company, is involved in servicing and offering the fraudulent loans that allowed the Greeks to knowingly mess around with the figures and so on.


Senator Terry Leyden: The Senator has taken more time than I did.


Senator David Norris: Do shut up, for goodness sake.


Senator Terry Leyden: That is most unparliamentary.
Senator David Norris: I could be a lot more unparliamentary.


An Cathaoirleach: I will ask Senator Leyden to leave the Chamber. It is not his business to interfere with other speakers.


Senator David Norris: On a final point — one must be delicate about these matters — the Irish bishops are in Rome to be reprimanded about the way in which sexual abuse was covered up and so on. The issue goes entirely to the top. How can they take any other lead?


An Cathaoirleach: Time, Senator.


Senator David Norris: For example, the Pope ought to answer questions about Maciel Degollado and the Legionaries of Christ——


An Cathaoirleach: Senator——


Senator David Norris: ——the man who escaped from Mexico, was pursued by the police and given sanctuary in the Vatican. These are very serious issues.


An Cathaoirleach: I call Senator Ó Murchú.


Senator David Norris: I, therefore, ask for a debate on public morality.