Norris under pressure for non-apology

Senator David Norris has come under further criticism for failing to apologise for using what was described as “sexist” language when he said a female TD was “talking through her fanny”.

The independent senator said yesterday he regretted any offence caused by his comments, but added: “What I regret most is that this will be used in this dirty campaign as a diversion.”

Mr Norris said he was “incandescent with rage” when he made the comments on Monday afternoon in response to a press statement from Meath East TD Regina Doherty on the abolition of the Seanad.

Ms Doherty is the deputy director of Fine Gael’s campaign to abolish the Seanad, and angered senators with her press statement, which said the first time she became aware of the Seanad was in 2007 when she was asked to run for it.

Mr Norris responded by saying long-serving public representatives should not have to listen to “the Regina monologues”, an apparent reference to the play The Vagina Monologues.

Following a statement saying Ms Doherty was “upset” by the “sexist comments”, Mr Norris accepted they were “intemperate”.

At the opening of Seanad proceedings, Mr Norris said he wanted to “explain what happened, put it in context and withdraw some of the words that gave offence”.

Referring to Ms Doherty’s press release, he said: “I was simply furious, having just possessed a copy of this mendacious document, in which those of us who over the past 30 years have campaigned for Seanad reform were smeared in the nastiest way.” He predicted that “this will be a very dirty campaign and it comes from the top”.

The Seanad Cathaoirleach, Paddy Burke, said once that once Mr Norris had made his personal statement “the matter will be closed”.

However, Senator Kathryn Reilly of Sinn Féin said the House needed to send a stronger message that such behaviour was not acceptable.

Fine Gael party chairman Charlie Flanagan condemned Mr Norris for not making a full apology, adding it was “bad manners” to side-step the issue by withdrawing his remarks.

“This requires an unequivocal apology,” he said. “David Norris is probably one of the best practitioners of the art of playing around with words. His behaviour this week did little to enhance the status of the Seanad and he has helped those of the view that the Seanad has outlived its place in modern society.”

The National Women’s Council of Ireland said Mr Norris’s statements were “sexist, personalised, and completely unacceptable”.

Eoin Murray, co-ordinator of the council’s Women in Politics project, said Ireland’s political culture needs a significant overhaul, creating a “women-friendly” Oireachtas to replace the current “old boys’ club”.