Each speech listed here is an edited speech. If you'd like to see the speech or debate in full, please go to the Oireachtas website and click on "Seanad Eireann" and then "Seanad Debates" and click on the relevant date as listed with each speech on this page.
Street Begging Intimidation (25/05/10)
Women’s Participation in Politics (27/04/10)
Murphy & Ryan Report (27/01/10)
Dog Breeding Establishment Bill (26/01/10)
Murphy Report (01/12/09)
Human Trafficking Motion (10/06/09)
Roscommon Incest Case (27/01/09)
Charities Bill 2007 (04/12/08)
Charities Bill 2007 (26/11/08)
Wearing Hijab in Irish Schools (20/05/08)
Equality for Traveller Community (28/11/07)
Cultures and Pluralism (26/09/07)
Drink and Drugs Abuse in Young People (30/06/06)
Press Council and Defamation (11/05/06)
Youth Affairs (06/04/06)
RTE and the Minister for Justice (22/03/06)
Public Disorder in Dublin (02/03/06)
Public Disorder in Dublin (01/03/06)
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Street Begging Intimidation
25/05/10 - Twice recently, I was approached by street musicians, entertainers and buskers who told me about how they feel threatened, abused and frightened on Grafton Street and elsewhere in Ireland by organised gangs of beggars. They were referring not to people who sit at a street corner looking for the price of a cup of coffee but to organised groups that abuse children by sending them out barefoot and threadbare to sit and look sad and helpless while taking up prime spots to beg for money. We should debate this kind of abuse. While it is bad enough on its own, the pimps behind it, and they are no more than that, use force to get buskers, street entertainers and street musicians to move on. I would like the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to inform the House what authority rests with the authorities in this regard, what can be done and what should be done.
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Women’s Participation in Politics
27/04/10 - I have seen identical developments in teaching. Twenty years ago, when people were arguing that teaching was about to become a female dominated profession, I remember asking what was wrong with such a scenario, as at least it would mean women would dominate one profession. Much has changed in the meantime. For example, no one even blinked when a woman became the general secretary of the Irish National Teachers Organisation for the first time. That is how matters should be.
The issue of quotas generates a great deal of heat and light. I have been involved in the argument about quotas for roughly 35 years in about 25 organisations and associations. While I do not agree with quotas as a matter of basic principle, they are critical in engineering change and needed as a transient measure to achieve a specific objective.
…. the Oireachtas is a male club which will not change any time soon. If I did not live in Dublin, there is no way I would still be a Member of this House 23 years after joining it. For as long the media argue that the Houses should sit five days a week and that sittings continue into the night, sensible people will not become involved in politics.
…. While the term “family friendly” has become a cliché, what it means is that people should be able to have a balance in their lives. This is not possible in politics. One need only consider the efforts to establish a crèche in the Oireachtas …. . The reason Members did not use the facility was they could not be sure when they would start and finish work. They could not operate in the manner normal workplaces worked. They could not, for instance, leave work at 5 p.m. or indicate that their child would be in the crèche for a specified number of hours each day. There is also an attitudinal problem. The Oireachtas is a male club and will continue to be so until such time as the men here decide to change matters.
Most speakers agree on the objective of increasing women’s participation in politics, although they may differ on how to achieve it. The answer lies within ourselves. If we want to make changes, we can do so. Even without quotas, we could take a strong line on how we expect people to operate and what the job involves. I would begin with a job description for politicians….. Rules should be established because if we do not have a proper balance in what people do as public representatives, they will effectively do a job they have not been elected to do. The reason is that if one was to do the job one was elected to do, one would not be re-elected.
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Call for action on Murphy and Ryan report
27/01/10 -The Murphy and Ryan reports have been sitting there for months on end. I do not know where the Government is in terms of implementation. I do not know what results or consequences we are dealing with. I have raised the question of the involvement of the churches in primary schools, the connection between school patrons and clergy about whom there might be complaints and the conflict between being the school patron and the shepherd of the flock. I do not want this to be interpreted as anti-anything; it is the reality. Everyone dealing with schools, children and education should be vetted properly and correctly. The idea of not making any change and not having any restrictions or rigours imposed on patrons and chairpersons, such as bishops and parish priests who are patrons of schools or chairpersons of the boards of management, shows a lack of confidence in the system. It is not just I who say this. Clergy also say it and the Archbishop of Dublin has raised this issue. We need to see the consequences and we must ask what we have learned from the Murphy and Ryan reports and others to come. What will we do about them? It is a shame if we do nothing about this. This House could make some movement on the matter.
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Dog Breeding Establishment Bill
26/01/10 - ...I say with some certainty that there is no justification for not excluding the hunts and the hunt kennels from the provisions of the Bill. It is beyond contradiction that regardless of people’s views about hunting or shooting, there would not be a pheasant in north Dublin or east Meath without the game associations. They look after their dogs themselves. I have no doubt whatever about that. In fairness, the Minister should consider that they would follow the rules of the hunt association...
In section 2 where the Minister has a definition of a dog breeding establishment as “a premises at which bitches are kept, not less than 6 of which ... but shall not include a local authority dog pound”, he should include “or a hunt club”. A hunt club is then defined in the very next section. It is just a matter of making that small change. We need to do that.
The best way to ensure the legislation will work is to get the people working in the area involved. There is a view that people who hunt are cruel to animals. In fact, they love their animals. I know that is a contradiction to people who live in the city and do not understand it-----
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Murphy Report
01/12/09 - Three or four months ago I raised the issue of the Vatican’s non-co-operation with the Ryan report and the fact that the role of the Vatican ambassador and the Vatican embassy should be called into question...
However, we need to examine our republican principles and where we stand. The problem of child abuse cannot and should not be cordoned off as a problem with one bishop. This is a systemic issue and, as politicians, our function and duty is to safeguard children and to make sure every religious and lay person is amenable to and subject to the law of the land. That is our job and if there is anything wrong with the law, we amend it to make sure that happens.
Scapegoating a bishop is not the answer. The religious hierarchy intersects with the structures of child protection in the education system. For instance, if a pupil makes an allegation of abuse against a priest, the matter is eventually dealt with by the school patron who in 95% of cases, and more than 3,000 primary schools, is the local bishop. The bishop with responsibility for the investigation of an alleged abuse of a pupil finds himself, therefore, in the conflicted position of being the line manager of the priest and the patron of the child. That cannot continue.
The first response to the Murphy report should be to ensure the hierarchy and bishops are removed as school patrons. That will not have an impact on Catholic education. Let Catholics elect their own people if they want to establish their own schools. If they want to appoint the local bishop or parish priest, that is their own business but the notion of a structure where systemically the local bishop is the patron of all the schools when he is also responsible for managing the priests of the diocese is not acceptable. We need to remove responsibility for the welfare of our children from the religious hierarchy. I always notice when the participants come close to an agreement, as is the case in Government Buildings currently, others start outlining the difficulties of implementation. A few months ago, it was said a deal could not be done and agreement on savings could not be reached. This is on the point of being done. Let people sort out the implementation problems at structural level. These deals can be done and they can be made work.
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Human Trafficking Motion
10/06/09 - This is an issue I have raised over the past 15 years and it is time we were honest and open about how we deal with it. There are arguments about this issue but society is afraid to act. There is no logical reason, if we look at the triangle between the pimp, the prostitute and the
punter, that two of those people are trading in illegality while the other goes scot free in law.
Someone pimping a woman, a child or even a man, who is selling sex to someone, and the
prostitute who is part of that, are guilty under the law of the land while the third person is not…
..We should think back to the debates we had on child pornography. Why did we introduce
that legislation that made it a crime for someone to look at child pornography or to possess
images, film or computer files containing child pornography? We all agreed that looking was a crime because it encouraged, fed and supported the exploitation and abuse of children somewhere else. The thinking was logical—if we allow people to look at and pay for child pornography, somewhere else down the line, we are encouraging child abuse and paedophilia. That was the reason behind it. It is absolutely logical. There is no gainsaying that. We should close this gap. If we are looking at the question of equality — I do not mean equality in the legal sense but in terms of the perfect meaning of the word — how can two sides of the triangle be guilty but the third side, without whom this cannot operate, never be found guilty? The only way to deal with this is by way of the final point in Senator Mullen’s motion, that is, to follow the lead of Sweden, Norway and Iceland by criminalising the purchase of sex in order to target the demand for the sex exploitation industry.
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Roscommon Incest Case
27/01/09 - There was a great deal of debate over the weekend about the outcome of the Roscommon incest case and related matters. I did not listen much to it because I can no longer stomach the craw thumping, puke inducing hypocrisy of commentators shedding crocodile tears for children who suffer abuse and neglect while blaming the HSE and everybody else along the way. It is 22 years since I was first elected to the House and there probably has not been one year in that time I have not raised a children related issue ranging from the Stay Safe programme to mandatory reporting. Along the way we have refused to address the issue. We had the same debate following the Kelly Fitzgerald and Kilkenny incest cases and the Ferns report. Time and again we do not give children the confidence to say “No” to deal with abuse. It is more than I can stomach anymore.
There is no honesty in the debate. Each time any of us has moved on the issue, we have been hammered. The same people who tried to stop the State intervening on behalf of the children in Roscommon were outside my gate with posters calling me a pervert and a pornographer when I was promoting the Stay Safe programme. When we tried to introduce this minor, soft programme in schools to give children protection, a number of organisations such as the Knights of St. Columbanus, Family Solidarity, as well as solicitors and politicians, including county councillors, lined up against it. I hope every one of them takes responsibility for what is happening because they are all responsible.
I recall people raising this issue time and again. I recall an edition of “The Late Late Show” during which a well known and popular jazz musician of the showband era from Monaghan stated how bad it was when fathers could not take children on their knees without being accused of being perverts. This is the society we have created and in which we live and I am sick and tired of asking for something to be done because I know it will not happen. Everybody else will say the family is more important than the child and that not interfering with the family is more important than the safety of the child. There is no political will to protect or save children and I cannot see it happening. Let us deal with the issue. Let us say, “Let our children suffer because the family is more important and we are afraid to take action with which some right wing conservative groups might be unhappy.”
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Charities Bill 2007
04/12/08 - …. we are raising a serious issue of substance. The Minister will recall a long debate over the past two years about the decrease in volunteerism at all levels in Ireland, be it political activism or activism in the churches, in voluntary bodies, sports bodies and so forth. In an increasing number of cases, the only way people can protect themselves is by forming companies. Once they form companies they act as directors and immediately come under the radar of the Director of Corporate Enforcement. The Director of Corporate Enforcement is extremely diligent. Everything is simply business. I have the highest respect for the man. He does not have any discretion in terms of how he does his work.
… the issue arises when a charity runs into difficulty. I am a director of a charity which recently sought a grant from a Department. The grant was given on the basis of our presentation, which included an absolute commitment of money from another source. The charity had a clear commitment from a company that it would support administration. On that basis the charity approached the Department and assured it that none of the grant would be lost in administration and that all of it would go to the precise objectives of the charity. That was very attractive to the Minister dealing with the matter.
Unfortunately, one of the companies that had committed its support went bust. This had a knock-on effect. The amount of money coming from the State was dependent on the initial amount coming from the private sector. In the meantime, in the context of a business plan and good governance decisions had been taken and projects put in place, with commitments given and people employed. …. the knock-on effect is that these do not proceed. As a result people are out of work or commitments and contracts are not adhered to, all for the best reasons. Ultimately, a person in that situation is probably very likely to find themselves convicted of negligence, at least, or reckless trading, at most. Either way, they will have a criminal record.
A criminal record has huge implications. It can affect one’s credit rating and so forth, which is crucial. One is a disbarred director. The Director of Corporate Enforcement has no choice but to disbar the person for five years. One can appeal that to the courts but at that stage one is up to one’s neck in the law. …. There is a serious issue involved here. The Bill will be going back to the other House anyway and I urge the Minister to examine this amendment.
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I have a problem with this section (Section 66). There is a flaw in it which needs to be looked at. This is an important section that deals with the report of the inspectors and who might have access to it. The authority may, if it considers it appropriate, furnish a copy of the report on request and on payment of such fee as may be prescribed to a number of different people, one of whom would be a trustee of the charity, a person whose conduct is referred to in the report or the auditors of that charitable organisation, etc.
It is incorrect to charge for the report a person whose conduct is referred to in it. It certainly is contrary to common law and it certainly impinges on the principles of natural justice to do so because a person is entitled to see what charges are made about him or her. It is singularly inappropriate where, for example, I am being investigated by an inspector, as could happen, even on issues we need not refer to now but which could include everything from immoral acts to all manner of other things, and a report is made on me.
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Charities Bill 2007
26/11/08 - First, on a general basis, the issue of meeting a charity collector on the street must be considered. The simple view I have held all along is that when a person is collecting at street level, the requirement must be that we know exactly where our money is going. Many charities employ people to raise funds and in that situation only a small percentage gets to the objective. In other words, one hands over a euro and only 25 cent reaches the target charity. I recognise why this happens. There are administrative costs and all manner of other difficulties, but there is an easy way of dealing with this matter. Other groups go out collecting and every penny they get goes straight back into the charity with no one getting commission. I do not object to commission but I object to not knowing about it.
An easy way to manage the situation would be to have charity buckets or tickets bearing a figure that would range between zero and 100. That number would refer to the percentage of contribution that will go to the charity. The simple requirement is that the charity must indicate this percentage. This would be confirmed and dealt with each year in the auditor’s report. It is not difficult to implement.
In light of where we are going as a society and as a community, many arguments have been put forward for organisations promoting equality and social justice to be included in the Bill’s terms of reference. This is a defining characteristic of our society. … These are fine charities, that is, if they are charities. Not all organisations promoting social justice are charities and it must be made clear when they are. I ask the Minister of State to consider that.
Another issue concerns defaulting directors. In the section concerning this it is made quite clear that directors cannot be held responsible when Government policy that previously supported the charity subsequently pulls the rug from under it. The charity then cannot meet commitments it had given on the basis of previous expectations. If people act irresponsibly or recklessly, that is a different matter and is covered in other legislation. I have no difficulty with that. Where people act genuinely, they should not be held responsible in such a situation.
I wish to discuss the issue of accountancy. .. I am a member of the board of the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority and I chaired the audit review group on behalf of the Government some years ago. I have strong views on how the operation of auditing works and these are disinterested views. I have missives from the consultancy body of accountancy bodies in Ireland. I regularly would be on the other side of the table from these people and would differ from them in my views, so I am not merely picking up an issue here and running with it. I am looking at the concept of how auditors should work. I believe there are dangers here and I intend to put forward amendments to this.
The issue of a threshold is probably not a core accountancy issue but it is a political one. The threshold of a charity’s income goes up and down. It might be left a large sum, for instance. We should be able to reflect this in the legislation. That is an easy matter. However, having an auditor who is also a charity trustee is way off and utterly in conflict. The work of an auditor must be truly independent. He or she should not be a charity trustee. A trustee cannot be the recognised auditor. In certain situations people may be trustees who, in their day jobs, might happen to be auditors. I am not talking about such situations but about the person who audits the charity’s books as required.
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Wearing Hijab in Irish Schools
20/05/08 - As a young child in Dingle, I recall that our teachers, who were nuns, were veiled. At that time when women went to church, they always covered their heads with a hat, mantilla or a veil. It was accepted as normal practice. I make that point because the question of the wearing of the hijab by Muslim girls or women in Irish society needs to be addressed. … I do not pretend to know the answers but I have views on the issue and would like to hear the views of others. Everyone’s view is important.
I gave that example from my youth because practice becomes normality. I followed the debate in France very closely, although I am not sure whether I was happy or unhappy with the outcome. It challenges us in all sorts of ways in terms of whether it helps pluralism and integrates society or does the opposite. One could argue both sides. It would be very helpful to have a debate in which people could offer their views … Let us hear people’s views.
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Equality for Traveller Community
28/11/07 - I have been involved in this issue for many years. One of my assentors for my very first election campaign was Nan Joyce, a spokesperson at the time for the Traveller movement. There is a need to ensure we take the proper approach on the Traveller issue. I listened carefully to the Minister of State’s speech but did not think it as patronising as others appear to have found it. It touched on issues which I consider important and the only aspect which I could possibly find patronising was the comment about television programmes. The criticism that not enough has been done is important, however.
We must investigate the issue of suicide within the Traveller community because suicide rates among Travellers are now four times higher than in the rest of the population. I would like to set targets in areas such as infant mortality, suicide and alcoholism, all of which have high rates within the Traveller community.
The idea of an ombudsman to deal with issues pertaining to the Traveller community is useful and sensible. However, having been a supporter of Travellers’ rights for as long as I can recall and having fought to ensure they received education and proper facilities in schools, I continue to disagree on the issue of culture, subculture and ethnicity. My point of view, that there is an Irish culture with a variety of subcultures, is not popular. People from Kerry or GAA activists thus belong to subcultures of the Irish culture. When I make this argument to members of the Traveller community, they disagree with me, which they are entitled to do. However, it is like apartheid to say they belong to a different culture from Irish culture. I do not mean to be demeaning when I say they are a subculture of the Irish culture but to point out that other matters are thereby brought into consideration.
Traveller groups often argue they are too often forced to change to accommodate others. I agree with the generality of that argument but not with the subtext that Travellers do not have to change at all. Everybody must change. I have argued with Traveller groups about the example of a mother who wanted to be settled in a house rather than on the road. That debate needs to take place within the Traveller community. I accept the argument that the State should be supportive, within reason, where Travellers choose a nomadic lifestyle but we are afraid to address these issues. I do not want educational standards for Traveller children to drop, but if they move too much they will miss out on education and thereby encounter significant difficulties as they grow older.
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Cultures and Pluralism
26/09/07 - I ask that the House would direct its attention to the fact that what is effectively a black school opened in north Dublin this week. I do not want a long debate about Catholicism, the Roman Catholic Church or the lack of planning. Instead, I would like a debate on the kind of community which it is our aspiration to create in this country, whether that is an intercultural society which will be judged by the engagement between one culture and another, or one subculture and another, or one religious group and another. This is surely what we are trying to achieve rather than trying to give separate space to separate groups in a manner more resonant of apartheid than anything else.
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Drink and Drugs Abuse in Young People
30/06/06 - I have received a number of communications from the former president of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland, Pat Cahill. Throughout his term as president he was concerned about the consumption of drink and drugs by young people. He has continued that work and he has written to me to indicate that the view emerging from the studies he is conducting is that there is a direct link between drink and drug usage. In many cases, alcohol is the gateway to drugs usage. This is something we have not discussed previously.
In light of the fact that the Irish Medical Organisation, among others, has called for the prohibition of alcohol advertising and given that we have been successful in making tobacco uncool, we should invite the Minister for Education and Science to the House to listen to the views of people who are dealing with young people and to discuss how we can make binge drinking uncool. … The Members of the House have views on this matter and should be allowed to discuss how and to what extent we can control the advertising of alcohol.
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Press Council and Defamation
11/05/06 - A matter that has been often raised is the press council and actions against the press. A story culminated yesterday. Two years ago, the story of a County Roscommon footballer allegedly playing snooker in the nude gave the country a laugh but undoubtedly damaged his business. He has needed to wait two years to prove his case, to the incalculable damage to his business, his family and himself. He endured much pressure before The Sun conceded it was wrong and paid him a significant amount of money.
Will the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform inform the House where the State stands on defamation laws and all that relates to them? This matter raises the question of whether there is a case for having an investigatory group within the press council to whom a person could bring a grievance against the media. It could make the case to the newspaper in question after concluding something was an unfair comment. Most people are afraid to go to court due to the costs, pressure and descriptive prose that will subsequently appear in the media. We need to make it easy for people to find justice.
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Youth Affairs
06/04/06 - We need to take a creative approach to the youth affairs. The issue I wish to address is the waste of resources and the opportunities which are not being given. We should try to broaden the range of leisure time experiences available to young people. As everyone knows, I am a great supporter of the GAA and help it out whenever I get the opportunity. It is doing tremendous work. Other groups, such as Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, are doing extraordinary work to develop talent.
If children from the inner city got the opportunity to spend a week in the west sailing or orienteering, or if they had free access to the Abbey Theatre, it would give them new experiences. For example, generations ago, among the most disadvantaged were those who ended up in Artane industrial school. By developing musical skills, Artane created the basis for half the show bands and musicians of every type. The young children who were committed to that school with no skills or no hope learned that skill. If these children had the opportunity to go horseriding, sailing, orienteering or something which they would not otherwise do, they might develop a commitment to getting involved in that activity.
I would like minority sports to be developed in the school curriculum, particularly at post-primary level. For one month each year, young people should be able to experience activities they never experienced before. I saw this work with a group of disadvantaged children in primary school who were introduced to the game of chess. They had never seen chess pieces but within one month, a number of them had become superb chess players and still play chess to this day. This happened 20 years ago and it is something about which I think all the time. We are missing an opportunity to provide access to young people. We are all aware of the recent cost assessment carried out by the Sports Council on the economic gain from sporting activity.
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RTE and the Minister for Justice
22/03/06 - I agree with the points made by Senator Brian Hayes regarding the balance in RTE. From my experience over many years, the whole world appears to have dealt with this, including Ministers from all parties and colours. Ministers have often refused to sit in a studio with people such as myself. I have grown sick and tired of it. On such occasions, RTE should not back down, and I have argued the case with the body before. Not only should it not back down, but if a Minister does not appear, RTE should not feel the need to be devil’s advocate on behalf of somebody who refuses to appear. This is constantly happening. It is the duty of the national broadcaster to carry out its purpose. This issue is not as simple as a Minister deciding he will not engage with a member of the Opposition, and it affects all walks of a civil society where Ministers refuse to engage with people who want to take them on. There is a wider issue at stake than what occurred last night.
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Public Disorder in Dublin
02/03/06 - I was disillusioned that within one hour of the events that took place last week we were either blaming the Garda or calling for the resignation of the Minister. That demeans politics.
I would make one plea about something that angers me. If I am at home having a peaceful weekend and I hear thugs being described as republicans I feel a surge of anger. I understood from school that republicanism was where Protestant, Catholic and dissenter shared the same space and engaged and interacted with each other. The idea of describing these thugs as republicans is unacceptable. It would be better to call them fascists, neo-Nazis or something else. They are merely taking on a proud title for which people in this country have fought over generations. These people are anything but republicans.
I want to know why a large proportion of our population apparently believes this march should not have taken place. Why have we produced several generations who do not understand the importance of protest and the right to demonstrate, and that our raison d’être for some 800 years has been to secure these rights? This question is more important than the rocks on O’Connell Street. The day we prevent free speech is the day it is all over.
Why have people like me, an educationalist, failed to inculcate the quality of tolerance in others? Cardinal John Henry Newman said the first quality of an educated person is tolerance.
Where is this tolerance? We have failed as politicians to inculcate an acceptance of diversity and difference in our community. There is no longer any space for difference. I would like to have an understanding of this deficiency because we could then solve the other problems. We can remove all the stones from O’Connell Street but that will not deter those who wish to riot.
This is the time to show we have grown up, are tolerant, understand the importance of difference, and can reach out and provide space for those with different views. A pluralist society is not one where there is space for everybody. It is a place where the engagement between different groups is positive.
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Public Disorder in Dublin
01/03/06 - I also would like a debate on last Saturday’s [Love Ulster Parade] disturbances. I hesitate to ask for it because it would simply consist of asking how many gardaí were there, what was the intelligence beforehand, and whether the Minister should take responsibility. The issue is simple. It is absolutely frightening that a large number of people in this country believe that the march should not have been allowed to take place and fail to grasp the importance of free speech and protest in a democracy. That is more valuable to us, as democrats, than anything else. We must also reflect on our failure as educators to inculcate tolerance in a generation of people. We, as politicians, must also focus on our failure to deliver the acceptance of difference as a national norm of democracy.
We should forget about the events and focus on the mindset that gave us last Saturday. Why is it there and whose failure is it? We must all take responsibility. During last week, I stated to people that the marchers were likely to be applauded as they walked down O’Connell Street, and that people would take no notice as they went about their shopping. I was completely taken aback and it shows how out of touch I must be with views held by people. I would like to discuss this issue because we have clearly disgraced ourselves again. We must examine it.
I will make a plea which people have heard me make before. I ask the Leader, on behalf of this House, to write to media outlets, particularly RTE, and ask them not to besmirch the definition of “republicans” by using the word to describing these intolerant thugs. Whatever else they are, they do not subscribe to the view that Catholics, Protestants and dissenters should share the same space. Perhaps we ask that they be described as “neo-nationalists”. That is what they are. There is not an ounce of republicanism left in these people and it matters little that they describe themselves as such. They are not republicans and it cannot be accepted that they should describe themselves as such. They must be ostracised from that tent immediately.
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Seanad debates are available in full on the Oireachtas website
Street Begging Intimidation (25/05/10)
Women’s Participation in Politics (27/04/10)
Murphy & Ryan Report (27/01/10)
Dog Breeding Establishment Bill (26/01/10)
Murphy Report (01/12/09)
Human Trafficking Motion (10/06/09)
Roscommon Incest Case (27/01/09)
Charities Bill 2007 (04/12/08)
Charities Bill 2007 (26/11/08)
Wearing Hijab in Irish Schools (20/05/08)
Equality for Traveller Community (28/11/07)
Cultures and Pluralism (26/09/07)
Drink and Drugs Abuse in Young People (30/06/06)
Press Council and Defamation (11/05/06)
Youth Affairs (06/04/06)
RTE and the Minister for Justice (22/03/06)
Public Disorder in Dublin (02/03/06)
Public Disorder in Dublin (01/03/06)
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Street Begging Intimidation
25/05/10 - Twice recently, I was approached by street musicians, entertainers and buskers who told me about how they feel threatened, abused and frightened on Grafton Street and elsewhere in Ireland by organised gangs of beggars. They were referring not to people who sit at a street corner looking for the price of a cup of coffee but to organised groups that abuse children by sending them out barefoot and threadbare to sit and look sad and helpless while taking up prime spots to beg for money. We should debate this kind of abuse. While it is bad enough on its own, the pimps behind it, and they are no more than that, use force to get buskers, street entertainers and street musicians to move on. I would like the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to inform the House what authority rests with the authorities in this regard, what can be done and what should be done.
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Women’s Participation in Politics
27/04/10 - I have seen identical developments in teaching. Twenty years ago, when people were arguing that teaching was about to become a female dominated profession, I remember asking what was wrong with such a scenario, as at least it would mean women would dominate one profession. Much has changed in the meantime. For example, no one even blinked when a woman became the general secretary of the Irish National Teachers Organisation for the first time. That is how matters should be.
The issue of quotas generates a great deal of heat and light. I have been involved in the argument about quotas for roughly 35 years in about 25 organisations and associations. While I do not agree with quotas as a matter of basic principle, they are critical in engineering change and needed as a transient measure to achieve a specific objective.
…. the Oireachtas is a male club which will not change any time soon. If I did not live in Dublin, there is no way I would still be a Member of this House 23 years after joining it. For as long the media argue that the Houses should sit five days a week and that sittings continue into the night, sensible people will not become involved in politics.
…. While the term “family friendly” has become a cliché, what it means is that people should be able to have a balance in their lives. This is not possible in politics. One need only consider the efforts to establish a crèche in the Oireachtas …. . The reason Members did not use the facility was they could not be sure when they would start and finish work. They could not operate in the manner normal workplaces worked. They could not, for instance, leave work at 5 p.m. or indicate that their child would be in the crèche for a specified number of hours each day. There is also an attitudinal problem. The Oireachtas is a male club and will continue to be so until such time as the men here decide to change matters.
Most speakers agree on the objective of increasing women’s participation in politics, although they may differ on how to achieve it. The answer lies within ourselves. If we want to make changes, we can do so. Even without quotas, we could take a strong line on how we expect people to operate and what the job involves. I would begin with a job description for politicians….. Rules should be established because if we do not have a proper balance in what people do as public representatives, they will effectively do a job they have not been elected to do. The reason is that if one was to do the job one was elected to do, one would not be re-elected.
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Call for action on Murphy and Ryan report
27/01/10 -The Murphy and Ryan reports have been sitting there for months on end. I do not know where the Government is in terms of implementation. I do not know what results or consequences we are dealing with. I have raised the question of the involvement of the churches in primary schools, the connection between school patrons and clergy about whom there might be complaints and the conflict between being the school patron and the shepherd of the flock. I do not want this to be interpreted as anti-anything; it is the reality. Everyone dealing with schools, children and education should be vetted properly and correctly. The idea of not making any change and not having any restrictions or rigours imposed on patrons and chairpersons, such as bishops and parish priests who are patrons of schools or chairpersons of the boards of management, shows a lack of confidence in the system. It is not just I who say this. Clergy also say it and the Archbishop of Dublin has raised this issue. We need to see the consequences and we must ask what we have learned from the Murphy and Ryan reports and others to come. What will we do about them? It is a shame if we do nothing about this. This House could make some movement on the matter.
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Dog Breeding Establishment Bill
26/01/10 - ...I say with some certainty that there is no justification for not excluding the hunts and the hunt kennels from the provisions of the Bill. It is beyond contradiction that regardless of people’s views about hunting or shooting, there would not be a pheasant in north Dublin or east Meath without the game associations. They look after their dogs themselves. I have no doubt whatever about that. In fairness, the Minister should consider that they would follow the rules of the hunt association...
In section 2 where the Minister has a definition of a dog breeding establishment as “a premises at which bitches are kept, not less than 6 of which ... but shall not include a local authority dog pound”, he should include “or a hunt club”. A hunt club is then defined in the very next section. It is just a matter of making that small change. We need to do that.
The best way to ensure the legislation will work is to get the people working in the area involved. There is a view that people who hunt are cruel to animals. In fact, they love their animals. I know that is a contradiction to people who live in the city and do not understand it-----
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Murphy Report
01/12/09 - Three or four months ago I raised the issue of the Vatican’s non-co-operation with the Ryan report and the fact that the role of the Vatican ambassador and the Vatican embassy should be called into question...
However, we need to examine our republican principles and where we stand. The problem of child abuse cannot and should not be cordoned off as a problem with one bishop. This is a systemic issue and, as politicians, our function and duty is to safeguard children and to make sure every religious and lay person is amenable to and subject to the law of the land. That is our job and if there is anything wrong with the law, we amend it to make sure that happens.
Scapegoating a bishop is not the answer. The religious hierarchy intersects with the structures of child protection in the education system. For instance, if a pupil makes an allegation of abuse against a priest, the matter is eventually dealt with by the school patron who in 95% of cases, and more than 3,000 primary schools, is the local bishop. The bishop with responsibility for the investigation of an alleged abuse of a pupil finds himself, therefore, in the conflicted position of being the line manager of the priest and the patron of the child. That cannot continue.
The first response to the Murphy report should be to ensure the hierarchy and bishops are removed as school patrons. That will not have an impact on Catholic education. Let Catholics elect their own people if they want to establish their own schools. If they want to appoint the local bishop or parish priest, that is their own business but the notion of a structure where systemically the local bishop is the patron of all the schools when he is also responsible for managing the priests of the diocese is not acceptable. We need to remove responsibility for the welfare of our children from the religious hierarchy. I always notice when the participants come close to an agreement, as is the case in Government Buildings currently, others start outlining the difficulties of implementation. A few months ago, it was said a deal could not be done and agreement on savings could not be reached. This is on the point of being done. Let people sort out the implementation problems at structural level. These deals can be done and they can be made work.
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Human Trafficking Motion
10/06/09 - This is an issue I have raised over the past 15 years and it is time we were honest and open about how we deal with it. There are arguments about this issue but society is afraid to act. There is no logical reason, if we look at the triangle between the pimp, the prostitute and the
punter, that two of those people are trading in illegality while the other goes scot free in law.
Someone pimping a woman, a child or even a man, who is selling sex to someone, and the
prostitute who is part of that, are guilty under the law of the land while the third person is not…
..We should think back to the debates we had on child pornography. Why did we introduce
that legislation that made it a crime for someone to look at child pornography or to possess
images, film or computer files containing child pornography? We all agreed that looking was a crime because it encouraged, fed and supported the exploitation and abuse of children somewhere else. The thinking was logical—if we allow people to look at and pay for child pornography, somewhere else down the line, we are encouraging child abuse and paedophilia. That was the reason behind it. It is absolutely logical. There is no gainsaying that. We should close this gap. If we are looking at the question of equality — I do not mean equality in the legal sense but in terms of the perfect meaning of the word — how can two sides of the triangle be guilty but the third side, without whom this cannot operate, never be found guilty? The only way to deal with this is by way of the final point in Senator Mullen’s motion, that is, to follow the lead of Sweden, Norway and Iceland by criminalising the purchase of sex in order to target the demand for the sex exploitation industry.
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Roscommon Incest Case
27/01/09 - There was a great deal of debate over the weekend about the outcome of the Roscommon incest case and related matters. I did not listen much to it because I can no longer stomach the craw thumping, puke inducing hypocrisy of commentators shedding crocodile tears for children who suffer abuse and neglect while blaming the HSE and everybody else along the way. It is 22 years since I was first elected to the House and there probably has not been one year in that time I have not raised a children related issue ranging from the Stay Safe programme to mandatory reporting. Along the way we have refused to address the issue. We had the same debate following the Kelly Fitzgerald and Kilkenny incest cases and the Ferns report. Time and again we do not give children the confidence to say “No” to deal with abuse. It is more than I can stomach anymore.
There is no honesty in the debate. Each time any of us has moved on the issue, we have been hammered. The same people who tried to stop the State intervening on behalf of the children in Roscommon were outside my gate with posters calling me a pervert and a pornographer when I was promoting the Stay Safe programme. When we tried to introduce this minor, soft programme in schools to give children protection, a number of organisations such as the Knights of St. Columbanus, Family Solidarity, as well as solicitors and politicians, including county councillors, lined up against it. I hope every one of them takes responsibility for what is happening because they are all responsible.
I recall people raising this issue time and again. I recall an edition of “The Late Late Show” during which a well known and popular jazz musician of the showband era from Monaghan stated how bad it was when fathers could not take children on their knees without being accused of being perverts. This is the society we have created and in which we live and I am sick and tired of asking for something to be done because I know it will not happen. Everybody else will say the family is more important than the child and that not interfering with the family is more important than the safety of the child. There is no political will to protect or save children and I cannot see it happening. Let us deal with the issue. Let us say, “Let our children suffer because the family is more important and we are afraid to take action with which some right wing conservative groups might be unhappy.”
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Charities Bill 2007
04/12/08 - …. we are raising a serious issue of substance. The Minister will recall a long debate over the past two years about the decrease in volunteerism at all levels in Ireland, be it political activism or activism in the churches, in voluntary bodies, sports bodies and so forth. In an increasing number of cases, the only way people can protect themselves is by forming companies. Once they form companies they act as directors and immediately come under the radar of the Director of Corporate Enforcement. The Director of Corporate Enforcement is extremely diligent. Everything is simply business. I have the highest respect for the man. He does not have any discretion in terms of how he does his work.
… the issue arises when a charity runs into difficulty. I am a director of a charity which recently sought a grant from a Department. The grant was given on the basis of our presentation, which included an absolute commitment of money from another source. The charity had a clear commitment from a company that it would support administration. On that basis the charity approached the Department and assured it that none of the grant would be lost in administration and that all of it would go to the precise objectives of the charity. That was very attractive to the Minister dealing with the matter.
Unfortunately, one of the companies that had committed its support went bust. This had a knock-on effect. The amount of money coming from the State was dependent on the initial amount coming from the private sector. In the meantime, in the context of a business plan and good governance decisions had been taken and projects put in place, with commitments given and people employed. …. the knock-on effect is that these do not proceed. As a result people are out of work or commitments and contracts are not adhered to, all for the best reasons. Ultimately, a person in that situation is probably very likely to find themselves convicted of negligence, at least, or reckless trading, at most. Either way, they will have a criminal record.
A criminal record has huge implications. It can affect one’s credit rating and so forth, which is crucial. One is a disbarred director. The Director of Corporate Enforcement has no choice but to disbar the person for five years. One can appeal that to the courts but at that stage one is up to one’s neck in the law. …. There is a serious issue involved here. The Bill will be going back to the other House anyway and I urge the Minister to examine this amendment.
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I have a problem with this section (Section 66). There is a flaw in it which needs to be looked at. This is an important section that deals with the report of the inspectors and who might have access to it. The authority may, if it considers it appropriate, furnish a copy of the report on request and on payment of such fee as may be prescribed to a number of different people, one of whom would be a trustee of the charity, a person whose conduct is referred to in the report or the auditors of that charitable organisation, etc.
It is incorrect to charge for the report a person whose conduct is referred to in it. It certainly is contrary to common law and it certainly impinges on the principles of natural justice to do so because a person is entitled to see what charges are made about him or her. It is singularly inappropriate where, for example, I am being investigated by an inspector, as could happen, even on issues we need not refer to now but which could include everything from immoral acts to all manner of other things, and a report is made on me.
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Charities Bill 2007
26/11/08 - First, on a general basis, the issue of meeting a charity collector on the street must be considered. The simple view I have held all along is that when a person is collecting at street level, the requirement must be that we know exactly where our money is going. Many charities employ people to raise funds and in that situation only a small percentage gets to the objective. In other words, one hands over a euro and only 25 cent reaches the target charity. I recognise why this happens. There are administrative costs and all manner of other difficulties, but there is an easy way of dealing with this matter. Other groups go out collecting and every penny they get goes straight back into the charity with no one getting commission. I do not object to commission but I object to not knowing about it.
An easy way to manage the situation would be to have charity buckets or tickets bearing a figure that would range between zero and 100. That number would refer to the percentage of contribution that will go to the charity. The simple requirement is that the charity must indicate this percentage. This would be confirmed and dealt with each year in the auditor’s report. It is not difficult to implement.
In light of where we are going as a society and as a community, many arguments have been put forward for organisations promoting equality and social justice to be included in the Bill’s terms of reference. This is a defining characteristic of our society. … These are fine charities, that is, if they are charities. Not all organisations promoting social justice are charities and it must be made clear when they are. I ask the Minister of State to consider that.
Another issue concerns defaulting directors. In the section concerning this it is made quite clear that directors cannot be held responsible when Government policy that previously supported the charity subsequently pulls the rug from under it. The charity then cannot meet commitments it had given on the basis of previous expectations. If people act irresponsibly or recklessly, that is a different matter and is covered in other legislation. I have no difficulty with that. Where people act genuinely, they should not be held responsible in such a situation.
I wish to discuss the issue of accountancy. .. I am a member of the board of the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority and I chaired the audit review group on behalf of the Government some years ago. I have strong views on how the operation of auditing works and these are disinterested views. I have missives from the consultancy body of accountancy bodies in Ireland. I regularly would be on the other side of the table from these people and would differ from them in my views, so I am not merely picking up an issue here and running with it. I am looking at the concept of how auditors should work. I believe there are dangers here and I intend to put forward amendments to this.
The issue of a threshold is probably not a core accountancy issue but it is a political one. The threshold of a charity’s income goes up and down. It might be left a large sum, for instance. We should be able to reflect this in the legislation. That is an easy matter. However, having an auditor who is also a charity trustee is way off and utterly in conflict. The work of an auditor must be truly independent. He or she should not be a charity trustee. A trustee cannot be the recognised auditor. In certain situations people may be trustees who, in their day jobs, might happen to be auditors. I am not talking about such situations but about the person who audits the charity’s books as required.
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Wearing Hijab in Irish Schools
20/05/08 - As a young child in Dingle, I recall that our teachers, who were nuns, were veiled. At that time when women went to church, they always covered their heads with a hat, mantilla or a veil. It was accepted as normal practice. I make that point because the question of the wearing of the hijab by Muslim girls or women in Irish society needs to be addressed. … I do not pretend to know the answers but I have views on the issue and would like to hear the views of others. Everyone’s view is important.
I gave that example from my youth because practice becomes normality. I followed the debate in France very closely, although I am not sure whether I was happy or unhappy with the outcome. It challenges us in all sorts of ways in terms of whether it helps pluralism and integrates society or does the opposite. One could argue both sides. It would be very helpful to have a debate in which people could offer their views … Let us hear people’s views.
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Equality for Traveller Community
28/11/07 - I have been involved in this issue for many years. One of my assentors for my very first election campaign was Nan Joyce, a spokesperson at the time for the Traveller movement. There is a need to ensure we take the proper approach on the Traveller issue. I listened carefully to the Minister of State’s speech but did not think it as patronising as others appear to have found it. It touched on issues which I consider important and the only aspect which I could possibly find patronising was the comment about television programmes. The criticism that not enough has been done is important, however.
We must investigate the issue of suicide within the Traveller community because suicide rates among Travellers are now four times higher than in the rest of the population. I would like to set targets in areas such as infant mortality, suicide and alcoholism, all of which have high rates within the Traveller community.
The idea of an ombudsman to deal with issues pertaining to the Traveller community is useful and sensible. However, having been a supporter of Travellers’ rights for as long as I can recall and having fought to ensure they received education and proper facilities in schools, I continue to disagree on the issue of culture, subculture and ethnicity. My point of view, that there is an Irish culture with a variety of subcultures, is not popular. People from Kerry or GAA activists thus belong to subcultures of the Irish culture. When I make this argument to members of the Traveller community, they disagree with me, which they are entitled to do. However, it is like apartheid to say they belong to a different culture from Irish culture. I do not mean to be demeaning when I say they are a subculture of the Irish culture but to point out that other matters are thereby brought into consideration.
Traveller groups often argue they are too often forced to change to accommodate others. I agree with the generality of that argument but not with the subtext that Travellers do not have to change at all. Everybody must change. I have argued with Traveller groups about the example of a mother who wanted to be settled in a house rather than on the road. That debate needs to take place within the Traveller community. I accept the argument that the State should be supportive, within reason, where Travellers choose a nomadic lifestyle but we are afraid to address these issues. I do not want educational standards for Traveller children to drop, but if they move too much they will miss out on education and thereby encounter significant difficulties as they grow older.
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Cultures and Pluralism
26/09/07 - I ask that the House would direct its attention to the fact that what is effectively a black school opened in north Dublin this week. I do not want a long debate about Catholicism, the Roman Catholic Church or the lack of planning. Instead, I would like a debate on the kind of community which it is our aspiration to create in this country, whether that is an intercultural society which will be judged by the engagement between one culture and another, or one subculture and another, or one religious group and another. This is surely what we are trying to achieve rather than trying to give separate space to separate groups in a manner more resonant of apartheid than anything else.
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Drink and Drugs Abuse in Young People
30/06/06 - I have received a number of communications from the former president of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland, Pat Cahill. Throughout his term as president he was concerned about the consumption of drink and drugs by young people. He has continued that work and he has written to me to indicate that the view emerging from the studies he is conducting is that there is a direct link between drink and drug usage. In many cases, alcohol is the gateway to drugs usage. This is something we have not discussed previously.
In light of the fact that the Irish Medical Organisation, among others, has called for the prohibition of alcohol advertising and given that we have been successful in making tobacco uncool, we should invite the Minister for Education and Science to the House to listen to the views of people who are dealing with young people and to discuss how we can make binge drinking uncool. … The Members of the House have views on this matter and should be allowed to discuss how and to what extent we can control the advertising of alcohol.
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Press Council and Defamation
11/05/06 - A matter that has been often raised is the press council and actions against the press. A story culminated yesterday. Two years ago, the story of a County Roscommon footballer allegedly playing snooker in the nude gave the country a laugh but undoubtedly damaged his business. He has needed to wait two years to prove his case, to the incalculable damage to his business, his family and himself. He endured much pressure before The Sun conceded it was wrong and paid him a significant amount of money.
Will the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform inform the House where the State stands on defamation laws and all that relates to them? This matter raises the question of whether there is a case for having an investigatory group within the press council to whom a person could bring a grievance against the media. It could make the case to the newspaper in question after concluding something was an unfair comment. Most people are afraid to go to court due to the costs, pressure and descriptive prose that will subsequently appear in the media. We need to make it easy for people to find justice.
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Youth Affairs
06/04/06 - We need to take a creative approach to the youth affairs. The issue I wish to address is the waste of resources and the opportunities which are not being given. We should try to broaden the range of leisure time experiences available to young people. As everyone knows, I am a great supporter of the GAA and help it out whenever I get the opportunity. It is doing tremendous work. Other groups, such as Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, are doing extraordinary work to develop talent.
If children from the inner city got the opportunity to spend a week in the west sailing or orienteering, or if they had free access to the Abbey Theatre, it would give them new experiences. For example, generations ago, among the most disadvantaged were those who ended up in Artane industrial school. By developing musical skills, Artane created the basis for half the show bands and musicians of every type. The young children who were committed to that school with no skills or no hope learned that skill. If these children had the opportunity to go horseriding, sailing, orienteering or something which they would not otherwise do, they might develop a commitment to getting involved in that activity.
I would like minority sports to be developed in the school curriculum, particularly at post-primary level. For one month each year, young people should be able to experience activities they never experienced before. I saw this work with a group of disadvantaged children in primary school who were introduced to the game of chess. They had never seen chess pieces but within one month, a number of them had become superb chess players and still play chess to this day. This happened 20 years ago and it is something about which I think all the time. We are missing an opportunity to provide access to young people. We are all aware of the recent cost assessment carried out by the Sports Council on the economic gain from sporting activity.
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RTE and the Minister for Justice
22/03/06 - I agree with the points made by Senator Brian Hayes regarding the balance in RTE. From my experience over many years, the whole world appears to have dealt with this, including Ministers from all parties and colours. Ministers have often refused to sit in a studio with people such as myself. I have grown sick and tired of it. On such occasions, RTE should not back down, and I have argued the case with the body before. Not only should it not back down, but if a Minister does not appear, RTE should not feel the need to be devil’s advocate on behalf of somebody who refuses to appear. This is constantly happening. It is the duty of the national broadcaster to carry out its purpose. This issue is not as simple as a Minister deciding he will not engage with a member of the Opposition, and it affects all walks of a civil society where Ministers refuse to engage with people who want to take them on. There is a wider issue at stake than what occurred last night.
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Public Disorder in Dublin
02/03/06 - I was disillusioned that within one hour of the events that took place last week we were either blaming the Garda or calling for the resignation of the Minister. That demeans politics.
I would make one plea about something that angers me. If I am at home having a peaceful weekend and I hear thugs being described as republicans I feel a surge of anger. I understood from school that republicanism was where Protestant, Catholic and dissenter shared the same space and engaged and interacted with each other. The idea of describing these thugs as republicans is unacceptable. It would be better to call them fascists, neo-Nazis or something else. They are merely taking on a proud title for which people in this country have fought over generations. These people are anything but republicans.
I want to know why a large proportion of our population apparently believes this march should not have taken place. Why have we produced several generations who do not understand the importance of protest and the right to demonstrate, and that our raison d’être for some 800 years has been to secure these rights? This question is more important than the rocks on O’Connell Street. The day we prevent free speech is the day it is all over.
Why have people like me, an educationalist, failed to inculcate the quality of tolerance in others? Cardinal John Henry Newman said the first quality of an educated person is tolerance.
Where is this tolerance? We have failed as politicians to inculcate an acceptance of diversity and difference in our community. There is no longer any space for difference. I would like to have an understanding of this deficiency because we could then solve the other problems. We can remove all the stones from O’Connell Street but that will not deter those who wish to riot.
This is the time to show we have grown up, are tolerant, understand the importance of difference, and can reach out and provide space for those with different views. A pluralist society is not one where there is space for everybody. It is a place where the engagement between different groups is positive.
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Public Disorder in Dublin
01/03/06 - I also would like a debate on last Saturday’s [Love Ulster Parade] disturbances. I hesitate to ask for it because it would simply consist of asking how many gardaí were there, what was the intelligence beforehand, and whether the Minister should take responsibility. The issue is simple. It is absolutely frightening that a large number of people in this country believe that the march should not have been allowed to take place and fail to grasp the importance of free speech and protest in a democracy. That is more valuable to us, as democrats, than anything else. We must also reflect on our failure as educators to inculcate tolerance in a generation of people. We, as politicians, must also focus on our failure to deliver the acceptance of difference as a national norm of democracy.
We should forget about the events and focus on the mindset that gave us last Saturday. Why is it there and whose failure is it? We must all take responsibility. During last week, I stated to people that the marchers were likely to be applauded as they walked down O’Connell Street, and that people would take no notice as they went about their shopping. I was completely taken aback and it shows how out of touch I must be with views held by people. I would like to discuss this issue because we have clearly disgraced ourselves again. We must examine it.
I will make a plea which people have heard me make before. I ask the Leader, on behalf of this House, to write to media outlets, particularly RTE, and ask them not to besmirch the definition of “republicans” by using the word to describing these intolerant thugs. Whatever else they are, they do not subscribe to the view that Catholics, Protestants and dissenters should share the same space. Perhaps we ask that they be described as “neo-nationalists”. That is what they are. There is not an ounce of republicanism left in these people and it matters little that they describe themselves as such. They are not republicans and it cannot be accepted that they should describe themselves as such. They must be ostracised from that tent immediately.
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