Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We should not always be affected by commercial considerations and I want to suggest a variation on that in a minute. We should not always measure what we do in society and how we conduct our business on purely commercial considerations. There are things that are valuable in our culture and part of our heritage, identity, tradition and what we are that we should preserve. I suggest humbly - this merits reflection - that perhaps in a funny way keeping some distinctively Irish things and native parts of our tradition might be commercially valuable. My humble suggestion to a lot of those here is that a number of tourists come to Ireland because we have a specific ethos, culture and tradition and are an island society with certain values. They come and are attracted by our values, lifestyle and way of life. If we create a society that is homogenous, bland, has no distinctively Irish things and is too reflective of western cultures, I know many tourists who would be turned off. Our very identity is a bonus to our tourism. There is a misnomer in there if one is talking about boosting tourism. We should be concerned that there is a misplaced concern around commercialism because I suggest the contrary is the case.

We have deep seated traditions and values. Christmas Day and Good Friday are the two days the pubs are closed. Good Friday is a very special day. Why should we apologise for that? I do not think there is anything unrepublican or non-inclusive about the fact that we reflect the values of the vast majority of us. As the census suggested recently, the vast majority of our people identify with one Christian church or the other. Good Friday is a very special day in the Christian calendar and in our culture and identity. Why not honour the day, be distinctive and do our own thing? Rather than putting tourists off, it will attract tourists. Tourists want to come to a different place. Those of us selecting holidays this year will look to places with a distinct identity and a different tradition and culture. We will go on an exploratory and interesting holiday. We will not go somewhere bland. My good colleague, Senator David Norris, interjected earlier to say that it is some sort of a theme park. We go for reality, not artificiality.

My humble suggestion is that we reflect a little on this one and that we think of the workers who will not benefit and whose conditions will suffer from it. We should think of the many publicans who do not want this change. Many publicans I know find it hard to maintain business for those times they are already open. We should think about our Christian tradition and identity and about what we are. Let us hold onto some things. Let us not throw everything out. Let us have a bit of pride in ourselves, our identity and what we are. Do we have to bow and doff the cap to every new fad and whim? Can we not be distinctive? Let us honour our great Christian tradition that goes back many years. Let us honour and celebrate it and not be ashamed of it.

I will conclude on this point. Many of us are happy to go on holidays and members of our families are happy to work in other countries with other cultures where there is a definite emphasis on their traditions. We do not interfere with those traditions. Why, for one day of the day, can we not stand up for ourselves?