Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

If I could just introduce the Leas-Cheann Comhairle’s family, as he said, his long-suffering wife, Margaret, his son, Andrew, and some family friends, Sandra Thomas, Mary Keely and Joe Malone, intern, Ewan Morris, and John's other long-suffering wife, parliamentary assistant Muireann O’Neill.

It is an honour for me to be the first to congratulate our Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I want to assure John that I am going to teach him Irish. He will not have to worry about that anyway.

On that note, congratulations are in order and we will move on.

Before we move to the voting block I wish to pay tribute to the Leas-Cheann Comhairle of the Thirty-third Dáil, Deputy Catherine Connolly. I thank her for her service.

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