Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Dóchtúir Mhic Róibín freisin. I am honoured to be given the opportunity to offer a few words and to ask a question as well. My memory goes back to 1990 when I was a new teacher in a small, four-teacher school in Athenry, Galway, in the west of Ireland. I remember the great joy we experienced together on her election. It was perhaps the first time we had ever spoken as a small staff in that way about what turned out to be a coming of age and a coming out for Ireland which Dr. Robinson began. In many ways she started what she has spoken of today as the new age of participation. Dr. Robinson started that journey for us a long time ago. It has struck me - Senator van Turnhout remarked on this as well - that Dr. Robinson has never deviated from her principles. I would be obliged if Dr. Robinson would say something today about the key influences in her life growing up in the west of Ireland. What drove her on, despite remarkable opposition at times, to fight injustice and to become a champion of human rights in Ireland and throughout the world at so many levels? For me, Dr. Robinson has never simply lived in Ireland; she has been of the world. What were the key influences for her which spurred this on?

I have a specific question about injustice against girls and I was struck by the way she spoke about the issue of child marriages. Recently in the House we held a debate on gendercide and the selective abortion of baby girls or the fatal neglect of baby girls in China and India as a means of population control. What leadership does Dr. Robinson believe we in the Seanad could offer to fight this problem from an Irish perspective? What is Dr. Robinson's view on how we can lead this forward?