Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Congratulations first of all, a Chathaoirligh. I wish you well in your post. I look forward to working with you, and to your new ideas, energy and input. I have no doubt you will do a fine job.

I also congratulate the new Leader of the House, Senator Doherty. I wish to put on the record again my gratitude to all of the staff here in the Seanad for their courtesy and patience.

Today, it strikes me as being appropriate to mention a few people who will not be in this Seanad but who did such tremendous work in the previous one. I wish to take a moment to speak about some of those people, on a cross-party basis. I will naturally begin with my colleague, Máire Devine. Máire made a huge contribution in the that Seanad. She is a true expert in the realm of health but also of workers' rights. She is a passionate Irish republican and a feminist. She will be sorely missed as she made a tremendous contribution.

A number of speakers mentioned Billy Lawless and I wish to mention him as well. He did such tremendous work for the diaspora and campaigned alongside all of us in Sinn Féin on presidential voting rights as well. Again, it is important to recognise his contribution. He was such a helpful, pleasant man who went out of his way to build relationships across all parties and made a huge contribution.

I wish to recognise in particular, Colette Kelleher, who did groundbreaking work on Travellers' rights, migrant issues and in challenging direct provision. Again, I hope we can continue to nurture the seeds of her work in this Seanad.

I wish to acknowledge Catherine Noone because she did vital work on the eighth amendment committee and took an awful lot of flak for that at the time. I think that work will stand testament for years to come.

It is not often that I agree with Senator McDowell, but he is absolutely right in what he said about the absence of Ian Marshall from this Seanad. That is said with all respect to all of the new incumbents. Ian was a vital voice for moderate unionism and for inclusion and I am genuinely staggered by the fact that the leaders of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael forgot this and somehow contrived to not bring him back. It is a huge shame.

I want to finish on a positive note. There are many new, very positive voices here from all parties today. I look forward to the next sitting of the Seanad. I particularly welcome the inclusion of Eileen Flynn, who will be a vital voice for equality and progress.

It is kind of nice that when we do get back to the other building we will see Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on the same side of the Chamber. They are well matched. They suit each other. I appeal to all of us on the left, all progressives, to work together. That is the only chance we will have to make progress for workers' rights and for a better, more inclusive Ireland.