Ormeau Road victims
Devine said Ardagh should apologise for comments about the RUC/PSNI and spoke of her own friends and neighbours affected by shootings on the Ormeau Road.
I remind Senators that if an issue is raised on the Commencement and I accept it, then it should not be raised again in the Seanad, either on the same day or the day before. Some people seem to want two bites the cherry but that is unfair to the Leader and to the Minister who has to respond.
Comment on this
I want to be even-handed with the Fianna Fáil leader, Senator Ardagh, but I lived on the Ormeau Road for over 11 years and I raised my family there. The friends and neighbours who were shot on the Ormeau Road were my friends and my neighbours. We knew when we gathered in the Hatfield House that night, in mourning, in grief and in shock, that something was amiss with the activity of the RUC on the Ormeau Road. Instead of asking Sinn Féin to apologise, the Senator should apologise to the people - my friends and my neighbours - who rang me this morning to ask me to stand up for them and make their voices heard. It is important for us not to dance around these issues but to try and build communities on an honest basis.
I want to move an amendment to the Order of Business and ask the Leader to bring in the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, as was promised a few weeks ago following a request from Fianna Fáil. I asked last week and I was told he would be here in the next few weeks but we may not have a Minister for Health tomorrow so I ask the Leader to bring the Minister in to answer questions on the costs of the national children's hospital.