in which he withdrew the claims. Immediately following this statement, Heffernan was censured by the Senate "on the voices". The Prime Minister was also censured for his involvement in the episode by an amendment to the censure motion which passed 31–30, with Coalition government senators voting against it. The censure motion read as follows: That the Senate— (a) notes that: (i) on 13 March 2002 the Deputy President (Senator West) ruled that Senator Heffernan's speech on the address-in-reply debate on 12 March 2002 was in breach of standing order 193, in that it contained offensive words, imputations of improper motives and personal reflections on a judicial officer, and (ii) the ruling recorded that Senator Heffernan's speech was so structured that it was impossible for the chair to detect that the speech was in breach of the standing orders until the very end of the speech; and (b) censures Senator Heffernan for: (i) breaching standing order 193 by his reckless and highly disorderly attack on a judicial officer, (ii) making such serious allegations on the basis of insubstantial evidence, (iii) failing to refer all the alleged evidence in his possession to the proper authorities for investigation prior to making his allegations in the Parliament, (iv) recklessly disregarding resolution 9 of the Senate's Privileges Resolutions (of 25 February 1988) which require senators to balance their responsibilities with the rights of others, and (v) abusing the trust of senators by speaking in such a manner that neither the chair nor senators could detect that he was in the process of breaching standing order 193. (c) censures the Prime Minister (Mr Howard) for not preventing Senator Heffernan's reckless and abusive actions in the Senate and for not acting immediately, after 12 March 2002, to reverse the effect of those actions. People from Irish backgrounds At a Senate Estimates Hearing in Canberra, Heffernan called the Irish-born head of Qantas, Alan Joyce, "an old Irish bomb maker", saying "Mr Joyce, if the power was yours, you know from being an old Irish bomb maker, if you had the choice, what would be the ideal pilot training?" During the hearing, he also made comments about having a beer in a three-minute break and there being no whisky in the water. He made similar comments to Liberal party member Julian McGauran, saying "Senator McGauran are you, do you come from a long line of Irish bomb-makers, do you?"