Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I dtús báire, gabhaim buíochas le gach duine a thug tacaíocht dom agus do mo pháirtí. Freisin, gabhaim buíochas le m’fhoireann a d'obair go crua mar gheall orm féin agus Sinn Féin.

Congratulations, a Cheann Comhairle, on your election. It is wonderful for you and your family.

I am honoured to be returned to the Dáil for the third time with such a mandate from the people. I received just over 14,000 first preference votes, 44.4% of the vote. It is a massive pressure on me to deliver for the people of the area and I will do my utmost, as I always have done. We are all aware of the big issues - housing, health, home care, childcare and early intervention. I am a united Irelander and everybody knows I believe in a united Ireland. We will do it the right way, and we will bring the people with us in doing it. That is extremely important.

Unless we solve the housing crisis we will not be able to entice back the nurses, doctors and consultants, regardless of what we do. Those people will not return and pay the prices and rents here. The key to getting people back into our health services lies in solving the housing crisis. It is very important. We must declare a housing emergency. That must be top of the list for anybody who goes into Government. It is one of our top priorities. I believe we are the best placed to do that. We have the best team when it comes to housing and we have the best spokesperson who is more than capable of doing that.

I believe that in Deputy McDonald we have a great leader. It is clear that many of the people who went out and voted did so for anybody but Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. They also voted to get Deputy McDonald as the next Taoiseach. That is my opinion of what the people have said. It is up to us to work through this and to see if Sinn Féin can form an alternative Government.

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