Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy Leader for setting out the Order of Business. I want to welcome back Senators Byrne and Senator Horkan. A week is a long time in politics. We had a very interesting election but democracy won out. That is the great thing about the elections we all compete in. Senators Byrne and Horkan are both very experienced and our group of Independent Senators on this side of the House looks forward to working with them. I suppose they have a another unique claim today in that they are sitting in Dáil Éireann rather than in the Seanad. I suppose that is something of which we are conscious. People ring me up and ask have I been elevated or demoted, and I do not know which, but it is a great honour to be in either Chamber. I the Senators them well.

I take this opportunity to mention the other candidates. I thank Angela Feeney, a Kildare county councillor and an excellent candidate, and Ciarán Ahern from Labour. I particularly thank the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Hazel Chu, for putting her name forward in what was a difficult election for her. She had to make a difficult decision. It is always tough when running elections against a large group of people, particularly in this case, where there was clearly very a strong, united and determined campaign to get the party people across the line by the tripartite Government of Fianna Fáil, the Green Party and Fine Gael. Fair play to them. They ran their competition, they set out their stall, they set out their vision and they got elected. I also want to acknowledge the work of former Senator Billy Lawless.I must be honest, I was somewhat disappointed with the result, that is a personal thing of mine. He is a man with a track record of working for the Irish diaspora, the forgotten Irish in America, London and other places. I thank Billy for his enormous work, for which we owe him. I hope there is a place, that we are big enough and wide enough in these Houses, and also the Government, to incorporate and reach out to Billy Lawless and his enormous talents.

Finally, I want to acknowledge, of course, Ian Marshall. He is a member of the academic staff of Queens University Belfast, involved in agriculture, food, innovation and technology, and has great skill sets that we need in this House. He is a man who has worked very closely with Phil Hogan, the former EU Commissioner; a man who has a great track record in Europe. He is a loss but I hope we and the Government, in turn, are big enough to reach out in the context of its all-Ireland vision. That is really important. What a place we could offer Ian Marshall in the shared island initiative. I hope people listening today might consider that.

I wrote to the Taoiseach yesterday because I know his enormous commitment to the shared island initiative. I believe he is committed, as is the Government and the Oireachtas. We know the difficult times that Northern Ireland is going through and the enormous challenges that this country faces in uniting the minds, spirits and hearts of our people on this island. Therefore, I ask that the Leader extend an invitation to the Taoiseach to come to the Seanad and set out the vision for the island of Ireland. I wrote to him asking him to make the necessary arrangements to come to the House. He is always welcome here. We need him here, we have not seen him since this Seanad was elected. There is a good story there and we all need to be part of the vision to support our people on the island of Ireland.