INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE David Norris has insisted that, despite having had to step down as a lecturer at Trinity College Dublin due to illness, he would still have sufficient vigour and energy to cope with the demands of the presidency.
Speaking at the official launch of his campaign for the presidency at the Writers’ Museum in Dublin, Mr Norris responded to a newspaper report that he had received a disability payment for 16 years.
He was out of work as a college lecturer during that period, but remained an active member of the Seanad.
The Trinity Senator said yesterday he had been diagnosed with hepatitis in 1994 and that the university authorities required him to give up his job as an English lecturer in 1995 on grounds of disability. As a result he had been placed on disability allowance.
“The university then employed a replacement and I was then at the suggestion of the university authorities in receipt of the disability payment,” he said at the launch.
The permanent disability allowance had not been funded by the exchequer, he added. Mr Norris was unable to say what the amount was but confirmed he was currently receiving a pension of about €2,500 per month.
A statement from Trinity said: “Data protection legislation prevents the college from disclosing personal information in respect of staff members or former staff members. “The college can confirm that Senator Norris worked as a lecturer in Trinity College from 1968 and he retired at normal retirement age in September 2009.”
Mr Norris said he had contracted the disease from drinking infected water on a visit to Central Europe. “Trinity didn’t in fact invite me back, I think there might have been a difficulty because they had already replaced my post.”
Asked if he was fit enough for the rigours of the presidency, he said: “Yes I am, absolutely. You’ve seen me, and I am, I feel a great deal better.”
He added that he was “quite careful about taking alcohol and I make sure that I observe a very rigorous exercise regime”. Mr Norris also read out a legal statement giving reasons for not releasing further letters appealing for clemency on behalf of his former Israeli partner, Ezra Nawi, who was imprisoned for statutory rape in 1997.
The Israeli legal firm Avitan Koronel Solicitors of Haifa advised that “under Israeli law nothing may be published about proceedings in a closed trial without the approval of the court”. This applied to letters he had written to lawyers acting for Mr Nawi, he said. If other letters to public representatives were disclosed, he could face the prospect of “expensive litigation”.
Mr Norris declined to comment when asked if the letter published in the Sunday Independent last July placed him at risk of litigation. He would not say when he had received the advice or why he had not published it earlier.
In his introductory remarks at the launch he said the Irish people “deserve a fair, open and transparent contest for the highest office of this land”.
He added: “The Ireland of the bright baubles has sadly passed away . It is an empty shell, like the unfinished Anglo headquarters a mile or so from here.
“We must change from a society which taught us to ask ‘what’s in it for me’, to a society which asks, ‘what can I do for others’.
“This is a referendum as much as an election, a chance for the people of this wonderful country to change. No Independent candidate has ever won a presidential election. A vote for me is a vote to change Ireland for the better.”
NORRIS CAMPAIGN MAIN POINTS
1. Priority to human rights and the inclusion of marginalised people.
2. New society based on helping others instead of self-interest.
3. Tear down the “monstrous inequalities” in Irish society.
4. This is a referendum as much as an election, a chance for the people of Ireland to change things.
5. Electing an Independent will remove presidency from the grip of the political establishment.