Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Chathaoirligh. I assure Members it is for one day only.

I thank the 21 Members of the House for their contributions to the Order of Business. I will begin by remembering the families and victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. They are still looking for justice. Today we remember those families and victims and we stand with them.

Senator Chambers, O'Donovan and O'Sullivan raised the issue of the new national maternity hospital. The decision of Cabinet today, irrespective of one's political view, is to be welcomed. It is proceeding with the project and we congratulate the Government on its decision. We thank all who participated in the debate in recent weeks. It was a strong and important debate in helping us to proceed with this project.

I welcome Representative Fran Hurley from Chicago and Sam Windle, who is in the House on a student placement.

Senator Chambers also made reference to the issue of Brexit and the Northern Ireland protocol, as did Senators Ó Donnghaile, Craughwell and O'Donovan. We all stand united in our condemnation of what the British Government is doing and has intimated it will do on foot of the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss’s remarks in the House of Commons today. It is important the Minister, Deputy Coveney, comes to the House and that we have an update from the European Commission on what is to happen next. Again, we have a sense of Groundhog Day with this in that we are back here again dealing with Brexit. As has been said, the majority of MLAs elected to the new Stormont Assembly are in favour of the status quo, the protocol. Everybody should stand and recognise that. It is important we take cognisance of this. I advise Senator Ó Donnghaile that the Minister, Deputy Coveney, has made very strong remarks regarding the amnesty, which reflects the Government’s position regarding that. I would be happy to ask the Minister to come to the House on that matter. Senator Craughwell was right in what he said. Responsibility should be adopted by those elected with a mandate.

Senator Chambers also paid tribute to the Breaffy National School on the welcoming of Ukrainian students to its student cohort.

Senator Keogan made reference to the European Parliament in terms of Covid. The Government, through the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health, has committed to our own review of Covid, which will happen. The Senator was right in saying is important we learn lessons from Covid and that we put what worked well into a proper structure but that we also learn from what did not work well. It is important we learn from what was the worst pandemic across the world in modern history.

Senators Black, Sherlock, Dooley, Gavin, Murphy, Hoey and O'Sullivan all condemned the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh. All of us in the House stand united in solidarity in condemning the killing of that journalist. As Senator Dooley said, as a person, she should never have been killed, but as a journalist, her killing, which was an attack on independent journalism, is also fundamentally wrong. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, has made it quite clear there should be a probe into her killing and into the events of the funeral last weekend. All of us condemn it. What happened last weekend was wrong on every count, regardless of one's political viewpoint. It is important we listen, engage and talk in order that the conflict and the dispute is stopped once and for all.

Senators Dooley, Craughwell and I visited Shannon Airport yesterday.