SEANAD REPORT:MARK DALY (FF) asked the Leader of the House to find out why the senior management in the Irish Coast Guard service had "dishonoured us all by their insulting of the Spanish ambassador".
Mr Daly said he condemned those involved for refusing the ambassador’s request to visit the Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Valentia to thank service members for co-ordinating rescues of Spanish trawlers in distress.
A decision on Valentia’s future was imminent, he said. If it was closed, he believed Spanish lives would be lost, because Malin and Valentia were the only two Coast Guard stations in these islands which could communicate with Spanish trawlers in distress.
Paul Coghlan (FG) said he thought it a frightful insult to the ambassador of a friendly government to be refused the right to visit the station. “Whoever authorised that decision should be ashamed of themselves in this democratic state.”
Leader of the House Donie Cassidy said he would investigate, as a matter of urgency, what had been said in relation to the ambassador.
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The French, the Germans, the Italians and now the British were plotting to remove the veto on corporation tax and to change the tax base, Shane Ross (Ind) said.
The House did not need reminding that a report on tax harmonisation had been held back by the European Commission because they did not want to frighten the Irish electorate. What sort of manipulation was going on? The veto would remain for the time being, but not in perpetuity.
While they would hear nothing before the referendum about the plans to remove it, people should be warned that the day the referendum was over efforts would be made to effectively get rid of it by hook or by crook by putting pressure on Ireland in other spheres so that we did not use it.
Pearse Doherty (SF) said the biggest impending broken promise by the Government would be the undertaking given by the Taoiseach to the Irish Farmers’ Association that an unsatisfactory outcome to the WTO talks would be vetoed. That commitment could not be fulfilled because the veto would not be there if the Lisbon Treaty was ratified.
Eugene Regan (FG) said he welcomed the Taoiseach’s U-turn on the WTO talks veto . It was unfortunate that this issue had not been defused a long time ago, but it was better late than never. “I think it also shows that, perhaps, Brian Cowen isn’t such a tough guy after all, and maybe is a bit of a pussy cat when push comes to shove.”