Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Having known the previous Seanad, and certainly looking at the current Seanad, I may speak now before the vote is taken because I certainly do not want to take away from anyone's achievement thereafter. With the permission of Senator Norris, I will dedicate my remarks to my late friend Bobby Storey, who will be buried in Belfast tomorrow. We are thinking of Teresa, his partner, and all of his family.

I thank Paul and Elisha for their very kind words on my nomination. I echo the tributes to the outgoing Cathaoirleach, Denis O'Donovan. Denny was a great friend, chair and counsel in the last Seanad and he earned and commanded the respect and admiration of all Members in every party and none. He was also very attentive to us as individual Members. He joined me on a visit to Belfast in advance of the then Lord Mayor's address to the Seanad and he is certainly a political powerhouse and authority. He will be a loss to the position.

Unfortunately, Senator Norris, I did not campaign one way or the other on the referendum on the Seanad because I did not have a vote but the great thing about Seanad reform and the proposed Seanad reform Bill that should be before the House and should be lifted by the Government parties is that it would, in future, allow for the House to be totally and truly representative of the nation in its entirety. I commend, agree and echo what Senator Norris said on the urgent need for Seanad reform.

No matter the circumstances I believe in looking for opportunity, and despite the new Government's attempts to undermine the people's vote for change in February by excluding Sinn Féin from government my message to the people of this State is never give up because I assure them that Sinn Féin will never give up representing their demand for change. The British Government and the unionist parties historically tried to exclude Sinn Féin from government in the North and they failed. I assure the powers that be in this State that they are failing and will continue to fail in their attempts to exclude Sinn Féin. We are the biggest party on the island, in this State and in the North, and the will of the people will ultimately prevail.

I am deeply disappointed that the Government, and new Taoiseach in particular, failed to include other voices from the North in this Chamber, particularly unionist voices. It is fair to say that in the last Seanad, Seanadóir Ian Marshall made an invaluable contribution to representing unionist people of the North and his views on other topics were always insightful and of great help to this institution. I and others in the Seanad expected to see Ian back here and I am deeply disappointed that the Government decided to exclude unionists from this Chamber.The Seanad must be representative of the people of this nation and while I am disappointed at unionism's exclusion, I am delighted to welcome Senator Flynn to the Seanad. I know she will be a champion for our Traveller brothers and sisters and for the experience of Traveller women in particular. I wish her well and I look forward to working with her and with all other Seanad colleagues.

I am proud to be elected for a second term in this institution and I thank Sinn Féin for selecting me and all those who voted for me. I would also like to thank my party for entrusting me with the position of leader of the Sinn Féin group. It is a recognition of the political importance of the North that the team here is led by a northerner. The Sinn Féin Seanadóirí will make a constructive and valuable contribution to this Chamber, as we did in the last term.

During the last term, this Chamber became a national platform, where the concerns of the people of this nation were given a fair and full hearing. I hope this national approach will prevail in this term as well because the issues facing the people of all of Ireland require a national and inclusive response and a response that is led by an Irish Government that marshals all the talent and resources of all the representatives in this Chamber. Harnessing the collective energy of Government parties and Independents will make the task of ending partition and uniting Ireland easier. So too will it help with overcoming the impact of the Covid-19 crisis and Brexit, which we should remember, along with the other challenges such as inequalities in housing, renting, home ownership and health and across society in general. In this Chamber and in the Dáil, Sinn Féin stands ready to play its part in bringing the broadest and most fundamental changes to the people most in need, wherever in Ireland they happen to reside.

As my colleague, Deputy Gavan, said, it would show great leadership if the first act of this Chamber today was to acknowledge the snub to the North over the course of the weekend and to entrust a voice from that part of Ireland in the role of Cathaoirleach. However, in acknowledging the political reality and dynamic in this Chamber, I wish my fellow nominee, Senator Mark Daly, well. He is also a proud and well-known united Irelander and he can rest assured that in his new role, the Sinn Féin team and I, along with others I am sure, will hold him to that proud record and stance.