Seanad report: Camillus Glynn (FF) said he welcomed the decision of the Medical Council to investigate the three consultants who had given Dr Michael Neary the "all clear".
This was a very positive move, he believed. House leader Mary O'Rourke (FF) said she agreed with Mr Glynn about the action "on the three experts, who were not so expert at all. They were expert at clearing somebody and not giving a proper decision".
***
Ms O'Rourke said she believed that the Minister for Justice hoped to close a legal loophole in relation to the operation of casinos in the Republic.
Paul Coghlan (FG) said he understood there was concern that a number of casinos had been masquerading as private clubs. There seemed to be a very unsatisfactory situation regarding the Gaming and Lotteries Act of 1956, he added.
* * *
Minister for the Marine Noel Dempsey said he hoped an omission from the Sea Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Bill would not come back to haunt those who had argued for its exclusion. The Bill passed committee stage.
He said that against his better judgment he had agreed to delete a power for the Naval Service to fire into fishing vessels.
"I hope this does not come back to haunt those who pushed this as strongly as they did at the time. They were using this particular aspect of the Bill, as I saw it, to try to hold up the Bill completely."
The issue was being dealt with under other legislation. "But if any member of the Garda Síochána or a sea fisheries officer or a member of the navy personnel loses their life because of the deletion of that section, I hope those people will take it upon themselves to apologise to the families."
* * *
Foreign Affairs Minister of State Conor Lenihan defended the opening of diplomatic relations with Burma, which he described as "perhaps one of the dirtiest human rights abusing regimes in the world today".
He said it had been thought necessary to open diplomatic relations so that we could "in the most fulsome fashion possible communicate to the regime in Burma our deep disdain and dislike of what they are doing".