Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. We will wait until he is ready to listen. The first people I congratulate are the deaf community. I am limping because I fell down the stairs. I congratulate the deaf community because what they did was the greatest example of how communications can work in politics. They are absolutely outstanding in the way they communicated with us, e-mailed us, telephoned us, spoke to us, told us their needs, what was going on and the platform for the whole idea. We just had it. What they did was brilliant. Would that other aspects of our community did likewise or that we as politicians or Senators had their talent in communication, so I congratulate them. They were outstanding. We could not ignore them. We did not want to ignore them but we would not have been able. They were absolutely outstanding. It is one of the reasons, as well as other reasons of equality and quality of life, that I am here to support the Bill. I must also mention Fianna Fáil colleagues. Obviously, I find it very difficult to mention them. I cannot say their names. They stick in my throat.