Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise two issues. First, I welcome the UK Supreme Court ruling relating to the flag protests that went on for months and that affected people living in the Short Strand. Unfortunately, the PSNI chose not to stop the protests going through. I am pleased that the UK Supreme Court found that the police service had the power to stop them and that it should have done so. I commend the residents of the Short Strand in Belfast. They courageously pursued this case through the courts, all the way to the UK Supreme Court to win that particular battle.

I hope this marks a step change, because we need a step change. Everyone in the Chamber wants fair policing in the North. The UK Supreme Court has found that fair policing did not apply. As a result, people suffered for months. I hope this will be a sign of a step change in policing within the Six Counties.

Senator Ardagh made certain remarks about Sinn Féin. We are proud of our record in the North. We stand for election in the North. We are a 32-county party. We welcome competition at any stage. We want to talk about a united Ireland. We will never apologise for that.

The next point I want to raise relates to the US President, Mr. Trump. I know a good deal has been said. One aspect of particular concern relates to Palestine. President Trump has signalled strongly that he intends to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem. That is particularly concerning. We now have people high up in the Israeli Government saying there is no need to even talk about the need for a Palestinian state anymore. This has serious repercussions for the people of Palestine. It is yet another reason to be concerned.

As a party, we recognise that we should not be breaking the hard work and the links built by all parties in America. We understand that the relationship is important. However, I have concerns in respect of the optics of our Taoiseach potentially fawning over President Trump with a bowl of shamrock. It is up to the Taoiseach to make it clear, if he goes, that he is entirely opposed to the horrendous, racist and misogynist policies of President Trump.

We can do something on this topic in the Chamber this evening. A protest will take place at 6 p.m. in Shannon organised by Shannonwatch.I invite any of our colleagues close by to come down and join me at 6 p.m. To be frank, it is one thing to talk about President Trump, but we will have an opportunity at Shannon Airport at 6 p.m. today to stand for equality and with our Muslim brothers and sisters. I hope we will have a good turnout.