Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I am not going to comment on our President, because we do not do that in this House, other than to congratulate her on her election and wish her well. I also thank all of those involved in the inauguration this week. It was a moment of immense pride in our country. We have had only ten Presidents. The inauguration was done very well. We have our elections, we have our ruaille buaille and then we pull together as a country. We all send every best wish for strength, resilience and joy to our President. I thank the Defence Forces, the Garda, the ushers and everybody involved in making the inauguration such a memorable occasion for our country.

I reject out of hand the diktat comment but I do not have time to get into it now. I wish we had the overall majorities on local authorities that the Deputy thinks we have. There are six Fine Gael councillors out of over 30 on Kerry County Council, for example. Our councillors decided, through our democratic structures, how they wished to engage.

The Deputy is not wrong, however, on the issue of spoiled votes. Just to be clear, I do not ignore that. People got in their cars, got on their bikes or walked to turn up at their polling stations - they did not sit on the couch - and they took a decision to spoil their votes, which is a democratic act that they had every right to do.

I do not think there is one homogenous reason people did it, but people found the field narrower than they expected. Quite frankly, it was narrower than I expected. We are happy to reflect and engage on that. We will not have another presidential election for another seven years. Aontú has put forward some proposals. If anything were to be done in this space, it would require Government and Opposition support. Some of Aontú's suggestions are interesting and I am happy to constructively engage in that regard.

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