Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join Senators Wilson and Coghlan in hoping Pope Francis will come to the four corners of the country, not just Dublin. It is important he is welcomed into our country. He is the Head of State of the Vatican and the head of the Catholic Church, the Pontiff. I would very much support and welcome an address by him to a joint sitting of the Houses of the Oireachtas. I am very much of the view that we should facilitate that if his itinerary allows him to do so. I also hope the organisers of the conference in Dublin will recognise the diversity of family units in our country. It is not just husband and wife; there are also single mothers, members of the LGBT community, who are well able to raise their children, and widows and divorcees raising their children. I therefore hope the idea of family is broadened as that would be inclusive and welcoming to everyone.

I have addressed the issue Senator Colm Burke raised. He is right about community health care. We should have that debate also.

Senators Feighan and Coghlan raised the issue of Brexit and the significance of the talks next Friday. I wish our Taoiseach, our Tánaiste and the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, every success in them. From our perspective, an Irish perspective, the Government and the Taoiseach next Friday will determine what happens and decide if enough progress is being made, but the important point for us is that nothing is agreed in respect of Brexit until everything is agreed. The backstop is, as the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have said, as legally firm as the Government said it would be in December. The decision by the UK and Europe is one on which we need to see further talks and negotiations. Where Senator Wilson and I agree completely is that, as Senator Coghlan said, no one wants to see, and no one will countenance, having to apply to travel north of the Border in our own country or to have-----