Patricia Stephenson (Social Democrats)

I congratulate the Cathaoirleach and look forward to working with him. I think I share the sentiments of the majority of speakers. I am from the North, so I am glad to see there are a number of us representing the North on this committee. I am a child of the Good Friday Agreement, so it is a personal honour for me to be on this committee. I look forward to working with all members. There are so many challenges across this island. Deputy Conway-Walsh spoke about healthcare, which is a major issue I would be delighted to work on to see how we can synergise the two healthcare systems we have. I think the majority of us see that the public have a shared objective for this island in the long term. We might all have different ideas and approaches to how we get there. I hope this can be a constructive and open space to discuss those ideas and approaches, and to bring in unionist voices and the voices of other communities on the South of this island who are often excluded from discussions about the North. I know we have a lot of Border dwellers here, which is fantastic, but I live in the south east and I find that we often focus on the North and the counties of Ulster, and a lot of those other spaces are forgotten and not brought along in that conversation. I hope we can use this space to constructively plan for issues relating to all of the island, and certainly the east-west issues. In particular, we are still dealing with the ramifications of Brexit and what that has done with the splitting of so many issues on our island. I am looking forward to working with all members and I thank them for having me.