Seanad Report: Leader of the House Mary O'Rourke said she could not understand how a Senator could draw a salary for almost two years and not contribute to the House.
"My mind cannot comprehend that you would take a wodge of money and you don't work for it."
Mrs O'Rourke was responding to Brian Hayes, Fine Gael leader in the House, who said that his party colleague Jim Higgins MEP had given a commitment to the voters in his constituency that if elected to the European Parliament, he would resign his Seanad seat and attempt to hand it over to representatives of the Irish emigrant community.
Mr Hayes asked Mrs O'Rourke if she would give a guarantee that in the event of Mr Higgins resigning, Fianna Fáil would not contest the resulting by-election.
Joe O'Toole (Ind) said there should be some method of getting someone to represent emigrants' views in the Seanad.
David Norris (Ind) said that Mr Higgins was a fine representative and a man of ability and integrity, "but he has not been here. The people he is supposed to represent are left unrepresented. There should be an election."
Mr Norris said it was incumbent on newspapers of record such as The Irish Times to scrutinise and not just accept the prevarication of the Department of Agriculture and Food.
Calling for a debate on genetically modified food experiments proposed for Co Meath involving a German potato crop, he said a Monsanto representative had been included in the Irish delegation to trade talks in Hong Kong and Cancun.
"This representative was given full accreditation. A representative of The Irish Times telephoned the department about the matter and was told this was not true." Mr Norris said this individual had been brought in under the cloak of Ibec.
Patients had been harmed by doctors practising in Ireland who had been "struck off" in other jurisdictions, Geraldine Feeney (FF) was speaking in support of Joe O'Toole (Ind) who called for the introduction of appropriate amending legislation.