Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have a range of talent in here, do we not?

I want to pass on my condolences to the family of Cormac Ó Braonáin and to the Labour Party. I did not know Cormac. My colleague, Senator Warfield, will talk further about him on the Order of Business, but his tragic death at the age of 19 over the weekend is something that shocked us all. I just want to pass on my sincere condolences to both the Labour Party and to his family. It is a terrible tragedy to happen.

I congratulate all of the successful candidates in the elections in Britain and in the North and wish them well in the challenges ahead, and acknowledge all of the candidates who did not get elected and hope that they are all okay as well - even Mr. Nigel Dodds. I congratulate in particular my party's team. We have come back with seven MPs again. I welcome Mr. John Finucane MP to his position in North Belfast. It was a considerable achievement. It is a testament to the man that John Finucane is and the MP that I know he will be. I suppose what the elections in the North tell us is that, above anything, and all kinds of analysis is done on it, we must be in charge of our own destiny and the responsibility we have across all parties and none to make sure that we do that. Even with the reports of Mr. Dominic Cummings stating that he could not care less if the North of Ireland fell into the sea, it is clear to everybody across the board now that we must be in control of our own destiny. To that end, I would ask again that the Government here would set up the architecture for that in terms of the discussions that need to be had. They need to be had within a framework that ensures mutual respect and everything else that is required, namely, a safe space for people to be able to discuss our future in a mature way, learning from the past but not being controlled by it. I commend today's important report on Brexit by Senator Richmond and the committee, including Senator O'Reilly. It forms the basis for the set of discussions that we need to have. I would like to see each of its elements being fully discussed within the Chamber, not just for a couple of hours. We should use it as a tool to inform our conversations. The Seanad will have a big part to play in all of this in the future.