Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am reminded this morning of my late colleague from SIPTU and former Labour Party Deputy, Frank Prendergast. He used to talk about the tyranny of democracy. I was never quite sure what he meant but I have a better idea this morning given the result in America. I am disappointed. Anyone on the left would be disappointed with the result. I blame the Democratic Party because it chose the wrong candidate. It had a particular good candidate in Bernie Sanders who is genuinely of the left. Hillary Clinton was damaged and, in many ways, what happened to her replicates what happened to the British Labour Party and, indeed, our Labour Party as a result of moving too far to the right for too long. When they stood claiming to represent working people, those people looked at them and said, "We do not believe you." It is a shame because we have ended up with the worst of all possible results.

There will be serious implications for this country. As part of his campaign, Donald Trump said he would slash tax rates for corporations in America. That may have implications for future investment in this country. No doubt we will hear the usual siren voices from the right demanding ever lower corporation tax rates here in response. Those calls have already begun to be made in light of Brexit. I predict that our two conservative parties will align their cause to embrace the race to the bottom in taxation, wages and public services in the year to come. We should do the opposite. We should embrace a call for fair taxation, good public services and decent wages. We should build a broad political front for progress and a fair society. If we do not, we will see the rise of the far right - now established with a new American President-elect - across Europe and Asia. As matters stand, next March there will be a far-right government in the Netherlands and another in France a couple of months after that.

What we are seeing is a repetition of what happened in the 1930s. It behoves all of us who believe in progressive politics - I do not claim a monopoly on that because there are progressives in all parties - to try to work together to offer a real alternative based on a fair society. There will be implications for the peace process because, for all her faults, Mrs. Clinton was committed to being a positive force for engagement in the North. We cannot expect that level of help from Donald Trump. As my colleague, Senator Ardagh, said, there will be implications for the tens of thousands of undocumented Irish in America. Prospects to regularise these people have had a severe setback with this election. I will be calling for the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to come in and have that debate on foreign affairs. Perhaps there is merit in a task force because there is an awful lot of work ahead of us now to try - despite all of our reservations - to establish the best relations we can with this new regime and progress all the matters that are important to us in terms of our economy and our people.

I want to highlight SIPTU's Big Start campaign, which relates to child care and which is being launched this morning. There is a huge problem with child care in this country. While there is some merit in the proposals from the Government, unfortunately they do not at all address the issues of pay and conditions for child care workers. This needs to be addressed. Clearly, we cannot be in two places at one time but I urge people to have a look at the SIPTU Big Start campaign. I call upon the Leader to invite the Minister, Deputy Zappone, to come before the House to explain why she has excluded trade unions from her committee on child care.