Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I take the opportunity on this historic day to join with colleagues in wishing President Higgins and Mrs. Sabina Higgins well on their trip to the UK and share in the optimism generated by this trip. I spent a large portion of my adult working life in the UK and my children were born there so I very much appreciate what this visit might mean. I very much saw the change in attitude to Irish people in the years in which I was in the UK, and certainly things have changed. I share President Higgins's observation that we do not have amnesia in the midst of the optimism and that somehow we need to combine the optimism and the memories to forge a new path in our relations with our nearest neighbour.

On a separate note, I take the opportunity to ask if the Leader would, on behalf of the House, write to the Acting Garda Commissioner, Noirín O'Sullivan, to ask if Garda Sergeant McCabe could have PULSE access restored to him. Every day that passes in which he does not have access is to suggest further that what he did was not correct. I see it as a form of sentence without any trial, although he has had some class of a trial. Whatever about the investigations and commissions, which I welcome, for that individual it seems to serve no further purpose that he be left trying to function in his job without that access. It is something the Acting Garda Commissioner might see fit to restore. I know she has referred to it but I have not seen any action thus far. I ask that the Leader write to her on our behalf to make that happen.