Vol. 111 No. 12
I have notice from Senator Jack Fitzsimons that on the motion for the Adjournment of the House today, he proposes to raise the following matter:
The need for the Minister for Justice to seek the early review of the verdict at Portlaoise Circuit Court on Tuesday, 4 March 1986, in the Ballinspittle statue case.
I regret that I have to rule that this matter is not suitable for discussion on the Adjournment on the grounds of no official responsibility.
I realise that I would not be in order to criticise the court in any way. I did not intend to do so. I was concerned with the situation where it appears that in this case damage to the amount of £9,000 was caused to a statue.
I am afraid I cannot allow the Senator to——
Could I ask you in what way I would be entitled to take this up? There are so many groups around the country that people can go around knocking the heads off statues with impunity.
I wrote to the Senator yesterday and I am absolutely in sympathy with him. The Senator might be able to frame a suitable motion. I tried to say that the Minister for Justice was not responsible for the verdict of the court. If the Senator is still unhappy about it we will discuss it later. I would prefer if there was not a speech now because we would be in a debate situation then.
I accept your ruling. I did not intend to say that the law was an ass but I wanted to say that in many areas regarding verdicts it appears to have very asinine characteristics.
