Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach is welcome to the House. It is an incredible privilege for me to be standing here as his nominee to Seanad Éireann and also as a Fianna Fáil representative. I had a few dreams as a child. One of them was to be a mother and the other one was to be a Member of one of these Houses. I was always in awe of our fellow party member, Constance Markievicz. I thought if she could do it back then, I could surely do it in the future. If a girl from the Cooley Peninsula, from an isolated Border area of County Louth, could walk in as a Member, so could anyone. Today, I want to dream a little bit more.

We are standing here during a period of centenary celebrations, which has often been difficult and very divisive. I challenge the Taoiseach to lead us by using all our pasts to change the future. We need to harvest that passion and pride, and indeed the hurt and pain. They should be used for good. Let us make this new century the first century that this island will be at peace. The Taoiseach has begun this by opening the most historic unit in the history of the State in my opinion, the shared island unit. It is our responsibility to ensure that our children's children live in a country where we have true republican ideals. For me, those ideals come from the Proclamation's promise to guarantee "religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens ... cherishing all the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences."

We have much work to do. We do this by examining and ripping apart everything we believed to be true, ripping apart all the prejudices and learned behaviour we have had over the past 100 years. We look towards the next 100 years with optimism and true, inclusive republican values. We need to re-examine how this country does its business, from how we treat people with disabilities, women and children to how we react to climate change and work towards a reunited Ireland. Only with a re-examination of how we work on this island will we ever be able to express our true republican identity in an inclusive and fair way. We need to challenge the rigid bureaucracy that we have created in this country. We need to continue to back this country its people - all its people and all its culture. We support the Taoiseach and we are behind him in his goal to finally deliver on the tenets of our Proclamation for this beautiful wee island.