Chair challenges manner of Leyden O'Toole statement

SEANAD REPORT:CATHAOIRLEACH PAT Moylan took party colleague Terry Leyden to task for the manner in which he sought to clarify a statement about Irish Timescolumnist Fintan O'Toole.

Mr Leyden claimed in the House last week that O’Toole had incited a riot outside the Dáil.

He yesterday stated his acceptance Mr O’Toole was a democrat and had not been seeking to incite a riot. “However . . . everyone has their own particular take on the world and I firmly believe that all of us who seek to maintain our democratic freedoms have a responsibility to exercise caution in our utterances.”

Mr Moylan said there was a well-established procedure for dealing with personal statements. Anyone who wanted to make a personal statement should contact his office in advance and let him know what was going to be said.

Mr Leyden said he had made his personal statement. Mr Moylan said he was not accepting the formula that had been used.

Mr Leyden: “If the Cathaoirleach accepts that as my withdrawal of the statement, I will confirm that now.”

Mr Moylan: “No.”

Referring to the disturbances, Maurice Cummins (FG) said a peaceful protest had been hijacked by a number of thugs, many of them under the Socialist Workers Party banner. Any parliamentarian who recognised any of the protesters involved in attacking gardaí or Leinster House staff had a duty to give that information to gardaí, as he had done.

Eugene Regan, Fine Gael justice spokesman, said there had been criminal behaviour in the protest. “I think there is an indulgence by the media of the extreme elements within these groupings, particularly the Socialist Workers Party group and others. I think there are groups who are legitimately protesting and who are being hijacked by an extreme element who have a political philosophy contrary to what most people in this country believe.”

Rónán Mullen (Ind) said he understood perfectly well the point being made by Mr Leyden. “I think he is to be commended for saying . . . he understands the bona fides of the individual involved, but remains critical of the loose use of language, and where that might lead.”

Not everyone on the left was anti-democratic, but some of those on that side of the political spectrum liked to use legitimate grievances as a cover to pursue other agendas. In that regard he would respectfully urge Labour Senator Ivana Bacik not to use the abuse issue as a cover for pursuing a separate agenda on education.

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Eamon Ó Cuív should be told to apologise to the Oireachtas for raising doubts over the future of the State pension, Eoghan Harris (Ind) said. What he had done was the equivalent of someone turning up an elderly person’s house at night wearing a balaclava and saying “we would like to have a chat about the old age pension with you”.