Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Déanaim comhghairdeas leis an Ardmhéara. It is a great pleasure to welcome the Lord Mayor of Belfast to the House today. I apologise for not being here earlier due to various other issues around the ordering of the Seanad business.

It is great to see the Seanad welcoming in a Lord Mayor from a different city. I hope we will continue to do so. I note this is the start of a series of engagements we will have with lords mayor from other cities, Dublin and Cork, but I hope also Galway, Limerick and, indeed, Waterford, my father's own home city. I would like us to continue this engagement, to extend it beyond Ms Deirdre Hargey, as we are already agreeing to do, and to ensure that all parties and Independents are represented also in this. It is important that we do this as part of our civic engagement.

I apologise again that I was not here earlier. It is a welcome testament, though, to the success of this sort of event that it has gone on beyond the planned time.