Political effin’ and blindin’: a short history

David Norris has form in his use of intemperate language in the upper house.

According to a search of Seanad transcripts Senator Norris has used the word “fanny” on four occasions since 2009, including yesterday.

A word search on the KildareStreet.com website reveals that on Friday he slipped the word into the debate on the abolition of the Seanad while responding to Minister of State Brian Hayes.

Mr Hayes had said the proposed Bill was a “simple Bill”, to which Senator Norris responded: “He said it was a simple Bill. It is in its fanny a simple Bill.”

In July 2009, during a discussion on the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill Senator Norris said: “The Minister of State commented that this is a ‘narrow interpretation’ of the term ‘staff of the approved centre’. Narrow my fanny: it is perfectly obvious that the interpretation is correct.”

And in April 2009, according to KildareStreet.com, Senator Norris again used the term when speaking during statements on bowel cancer awareness. “Speaker after speaker has said that we all seem to have been supplied with the same statistics but there is no harm in repeating them. There may be no active harm but it is a pain in the fanny,” the Senator said.

Senator Norris is not alone in his use of unparliamentary language in an Oireachtas setting.

Sinn Féin’s Aengus O’Snodaigh told the Dáil in June 2010 the then-government had “fucked up the economy”.

In November 2009, in reference to the Eircom shares debacle, he said: "For the hundreds of thousands of people, including me, who gambled by purchasing Eircom shares and suffered the consequences, it was a case of hard luck. I did not cry out for the Government to bail me out at the current market value, which was worth fuck-all at the time."

Green Party TD Paul Gogarty infamously said during a debate on the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill in December 2009 with Labour TD Emmet Stagg: "With all due respect, in the most unparliamentary language, fuck you Deputy Stagg. Fuck you."

He later apologised for his use of “unparliamentary language”.

Banned words and phrases

According to the latest edition of the Salient Rulings of the Chair of the Dáil, the following words or phrases have been ruled to be disorderly: brat, acting the brat, buffoon, buffoonery, chancer, communist, corner boy, corner boy tactics, fascist, fascist Minister, gurrier, guttersnipe, hypocrite, bloody hypocrites, hypocrisy etc. rat, scumbag, scurrilous, scurrilous speaker , yahoo.

“The reference to ‘handbagging’ particularly with reference to a lady member of the House, has been deemed to be unparliamentary,” the document adds.