Pat Casey (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Can I give you my congratulations, a Chathaoirligh, on your success of being elected Cathaoirleach today. It is a huge honour for you and for your family. As previous speakers have said, I too know you going back as far as 2006 to that famous strategy of yours to win a Seanad seat in 2007. Some of us have tried to replicate parts of the campaign that you ran then. I had my final meeting with you in 2007 on that famous night in my own hotel, at the Pheasant Pluckers Ball, when you hung around for nearly two and a half hours waiting to speak to me to get my vote. It is that tenacity that other speakers have spoken about that you continue to show. People say that if one hangs on to something long enough it comes back into fashion. I am referring to your hairstyle, a Chathaoirligh, and Treasure Island. It looks as if the curls are coming back while the hair might be a little lighter.

This is a significant year for me and my family. It is a huge honour for me to be elected to the Seanad. It is also the 60th year since our family business was opened by my father. It would actually be my father's birthday today. We are opening our doors again today. Today is an accumulation of many events for me, of many emotional events for my wife, Sonia, and my mother at home. Regrettably, our father is not with us anymore. My brother is at the hotel today, opening the doors for the first time after three months. We are opening the doors to a very uncertain future. We do not know what is going to happen.We are opening our doors with just 17 people because we just do not know. The tourism industry is probably the industry that will suffer the most because of the pandemic. This will have a significant impact on rural Ireland. Tourism is a major economic driver for rural Ireland. These are the challenges facing us as we move forward. We need to look beyond the immediate supports for business. We need to sustain them well into next year if we are to try to keep these businesses and small family businesses on track.

It would be remiss of me not to thank everybody involved for their work to date in beating the pandemic and in flattening the curve. This is not just the front-line workers; it is every worker who has played his or her role in getting us to where we are today. If they had not done that we would not be reopening our doors today. I put on record my thanks to everybody in that regard.

Housing has been mentioned by Members today. Having served for four years on the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government, I have a full grasp of the housing situation. The solutions are not owned entirely by the left. I know from my work on the committee and from working very closely with Deputy Eoin Ó Broin that many of our policies are very close. It is indeed about trying to deliver social homes, but equally it is about tackling the issues front-on with regard to affordability. Affordability to purchase or affordability to rent for our citizens in the future is our greatest challenge.

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I wish you the best of luck and my support in the years to come.