LETTERS CONTROVERSY:SENATOR DAVID Norris yesterday attempted to draw a line under the controversy caused by clemency letters he wrote in a statutory rape case by saying the people of Ireland had "moved on" and did not want candidates to be "one-trick ponies".
Mr Norris has made public details of one of the letters he wrote on behalf of his former partner Ezra Nawi, who was convicted in Israel of unlawful sexual relations with a 15-year old boy in 1992.
However, his refusal to release other letters he wrote on behalf of Mr Nawi, and his varying explanations for not doing so, have dogged his campaign since he secured his nomination earlier this week.
Mr Norris said the matter should now be closed. “Let’s move on. This thing is parked as far as I am concerned. “I would say this [to the media] please don’t turn us into one-trick ponies.
“There’s more in this campaign than endlessly going on about one thing that has been answered. I have done it in every newspaper. I have done it with Pat Kenny, with Richard Crowley (on RTÉ’s Prime Time), and on the Late Late Show.
“How many times must I explain? I can make a recording.” Asked why he had offered a number of different explanations as to why the letters could not be published, he responded: “There are several versions of the explanations as to why the letters cannot be published.
“The essential thing is not to cause collateral damage to other people. I have had various advice from here, there and everywhere.
“Somebody said I should read [the letters] into the record of the Seanad. Frankly that’s not possible. It would not be allowed.” Mr Norris asserted that his campaign had really taken off and the response from ordinary people had been overwhelming. He said nobody outside the media has mentioned the letters to him. He said that his “temporary withdrawal” and his decision to return, had both been “absolutely appropriate. It’s like the beginning of a football match when the ball is thrown in and when everybody’s trying to get settled in the first 10 minutes.”
Independent candidate Seán Gallagher also said yesterday there was a need for the agenda to move on from the controversies surrounding Mr Norris and Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness.
“There’s a huge amount of distractions about controversies. I’d like to get back to the real issues,” he said.
“There are so many real issues out there and people are struggling with unemployment and emigration.
“People with disabilities worried about cuts in welfare and how they will cope. They need our empathy,” he said.
“I welcome moving on where coverage will follow the candidates, get behind the scenes and find out who we are, where we come from and what we stand for, what’s driving us to seek this office,” he said.
Mr Gallagher also said that a large number of towns and communities involved in Tidy Towns competitions – including Mallow, Westport, Ballinrobe and Fermoy – had completely backed his decision not to use posters.
He pointed to the huge diversity of media outlets including the internet and social media.
“There’s no reason that people can’t make up their mind based on those,” he said.