Sir, -I was with a mixture of amusement and anger that I read yet another missive from Breda Mackey (June 11th). She refers to questions addressed to her in my letter to you of June 7th and quite properly claims the right to respond.
Unfortunately, she fails to answer, or even to attempt to answer, a single one of the fairly straightforward queries I raised. Instead she accuses me of seeming to be as certain about her motives for her letter of May 29th and about her sexuality as I am about my own. She goes on to state that she could have some news for me in one of these areas but that her sexuality is her own business. So indeed it is and long may it remain so.
Ms Mackey made heavy weather of the fact that in my original letter I used the phrase "alleged human rights abuses". That I did so was quite appropriate. Despite the fact that the prima facie evidence from a number of sources is in my opinion overwhelmingly persuasive, what is required in this situation is a proper independent determination of the facts and appropriate remedial action. The matter of torture, for example, is inevitably at this stage reliant on hearsay, while on the other hand the completely inappropriate behaviour of the Egyptian prosecutor's office and the orchestrated racism and homophobia of sections of the Egyptian media are established fact.
Ms Mackey's statement that I chose to represent merely the uncorroborated allegations of homosexual lobby groups is simply wrong. The matter has provoked an emergency action call from Amnesty International.
Yours, etc.,
Senator David Norris, Seanad Eireann, Dublin 2.