Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We are here as Teachtaí Dála and as Seanadóirí to commit again to represent, to the best of our ability, the will of all our people, recognising the equal right and equal opportunity for every citizen and reaffirming our duty to provide for the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of every child, thus promising in our different programmes to protect them from hunger, homelessness and cold and investing everything in their education and training so that they can think big and provide for their tomorrow. We need to invest everything to give a sense of hope, for this next generation is coming of age in a world in turmoil. To our west, the American constitutional system seems to have lost its very equanimity. To our east, the mother of all parliaments is split on where it wants to be in the world. From the south, we see desperate people clinging to threadbare rafts as they flee their homes. To the north, we know the ice sheets are melting as the very fabric of the natural world is torn apart. What dreams can be woven with such fraying cloth?

Perhaps it helps that we are still that "last outpost of Europe", a gateway at the cutting edge of the Atlantic. Perhaps we can still live up to what JFK saw as our unique opportunity: to provide a beacon of hope for a future of peace and freedom in our world. If we want to fulfil that role, then our message to the other free nations of the world on this, our birthday, should be clear and simple. We will do everything in our power to achieve the 17 sustainable development goals which we have agreed already in the United Nations. If we meet those goals, we will be that "isle of destiny". Our hour will come again, when we have both the obligation and the opportunity to bring some good news to the world. Síocháin ar fud an domhain - that should be our republican aim today, knowing that our independence and welfare are guaranteed when we recognise the independence of all the nations of this world.

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