Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have known each other a long time, a Chathaoirligh. I was first elected as a councillor in 2004 and I know that any member of any local authority in this country worth their salt has your number. You are a tremendous campaigner, a tremendous worker and I think you will be a tremendous Cathaoirleach.

Apart from being a local authority member, I grew up on the Navan Road and in Cabra and you have done tremendous work for the deaf community. That is well recognised in my local community. You can be very proud of that.

I am a northside Dub. I am a GAA supporter and we are a stone's throw from Croke Park. An rud is annamh is iontach. It is not often we would wish a Kerryman well in this part of the city, but I really do wish you well and comhghairdeas. I look forward to working with you.

It is a huge honour for me to take my seat and stand here in the Seanad. I am very conscious that many have been here before me and that many see it as a stepping stone to other places. Like many people, I got involved in politics just to serve my community, to play my part and to make a contribution. It is a tremendous honour to be elected to any public office. It was my particular honour to have been elected to the largest local authority, Dublin City Council, and it is one that I took very seriously. I am very proud to represent my community but I am equally proud to be a voice for that community in this Chamber. I think this Chamber can do tremendous work. We are at a very difficult time for our country and for the globe. We have an ambitious programme for Government, but it is just that; it is a statement of intent. For that programme to have any meaning for the people that we aspire to represent, we have to take hold of it, own it and deliver on its promises. That is our collective challenge. We can do our work in slogans and sound bites or we can do our work seriously. We can take the programme for Government and make it a living document, and we can make it a programme that delivers for our communities and for our country.

It is a huge honour for me, from Dublin Central, to have been nominated by the Taoiseach and I appreciate the support of the other two party leaders, Deputies Ryan and Varadkar. It is a difficult time for our party and for other parties to decide to put our differences aside and to join with those we have opposed and criticised and to try to do better. That is what I have committed to do. I have committed to put my criticisms aside, to take them at their word and to believe that they want to do better. In this constituency of Dublin Central, which is represented by the leader of the supposed party for change, we have the lowest home ownership in the country. We have the highest number of homeless accommodation units in the country and zero social and affordable homes have been built in Dublin Central in the past ten years.That is an unacceptable record. It is unacceptable to the people of my community and my constituency. I am determined to take my place in the Seanad and make it relevant to the people of my community and my constituency. I am determined to stop that rot and reverse the crisis in homelessness.

More than 50 years ago, Brother Kevin Crowley set up the Capuchin Day Centre in Church Street. It is busier today than it ever was. That should be unacceptable to all of us. It is unacceptable that any of us would use our time in this Chamber in anything but a constructive way. You, a Chathaoirligh, have my 100% commitment and support to do that, as well as to work with all Senators of all parties and none to ensure that this programme for Government is delivered and that everyone in our country has a secure place to call home.