Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join in the good wishes to everybody for an enjoyable and restful summer. One person in Leinster House who will not be coming back, because he is retiring after 40 years of service, is Kieran Coughlan, the Secretary General. He has had a long career during which he was the Clerk Assistant of the Seanad, which is undoubtedly a post that leads to great things, as well as being involved in the New Ireland Forum, and he is now the Clerk of the Dáil. I can say I have known him longer than anybody else in the House because we lived next door to each other as infants. We had lost touch, and one of the most pleasant surprises I had upon coming here was to find my former next door neighbour in the position he holds. I wish him, and all our staff who look after us so splendidly, an enjoyable summer.

I endorse the welcome for Mr. Jo-Anick Proulx, the manager of the Grosse-Île and Irish Memorial National Historic Site park on the Saint Lawrence river. It is a very moving place. He has custody of the largest Celtic cross in the world, which commemorates approximately 7,000 Irish people who left the famine ships and died there. It is an aspect of the diaspora to which we have not paid much attention. Many Irish migrants to Quebec became French speakers, and this is a very strong tradition, notably in Montreal, where Thomas D'Arcy McGee is celebrated with his own pew in Saint Patrick's Basilica. Mr. Proulx is looking forward to meeting Senator Brennan, who told us the artefacts from Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the founders of the Canadian Confederation, were stored here but have been removed to Carlingford, his home town, in County Louth.

Interestingly, yesterday I received an e-mail from one of my former classmates in Canada who stated he would not worry about the Taoiseach's plan to get rid of our crowd, because it is almost impossible to jettison senates, as they know well in Canada. He expects it is a ploy to distract the electorate from the real problems of government, which he states in Ireland's case are rather overwhelming. I commend this Canadian intervention in the debate.