Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim comhghairdeas leis an gCeann Comhairle, a chlann agus a fhoireann oifige as a thoghadh. Go n-éirí leis sa téarma nua. Gabhaim buíochas freisin le muintir Mhaigh Eo as mo thoghadh.

I welcome the 48 new Deputies, their families and supporters, and wish them every success. I think of my former colleagues from the Thirty-second Dáil, those who were defeated and those who have retired, from all parties and none, following long service. Today will be a difficult day for them and we think of them and their families.

Change is the theme of the day. It is easy to speak about, but difficult to deliver, change. We need a Taoiseach who has experience of tackling vested interests and a deep-seated reluctance to change. That is Deputy Micheál Martin. He has shown, throughout his ministerial career and career in politics, that he will take on vested interests and roll them aside, as he did in introducing the first smoking ban in the world and by introducing radical changes when he served as Minister for Education and Science, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and Minister for Health and Children. He has shown that in his leadership of Fianna Fáil since 2011. We can speak about, offer and promise change but we must have the skills to deliver it. We must have the interest in our community and nation to believe that it must be done despite whatever obstacles we face, and that has been Deputy Micheál Martin's hallmark through his political career.

Many people here will demand action and insist that people get to work, but will walk away from the Chamber this evening without doing anything and will wait for things to happen. Fianna Fáil is not going to do that and will engage, in the coming days and weeks, in a process of delivering a programme for Government that is real and substantial.

I thank the 484,315 people who voted for Fianna Fáil. We will not ignore, walk away from, or lie down under that mandate as some people would wish us to do. We will seek to deliver on what those people demanded in voting for our candidates. We will seek to deliver better lives for all of their families and a republic of which we can be proud as we enter this significant phase in our nation's history.

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