Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also want to give my regards to the German ambassador and acknowledge the importance of Germany's national day. Through him, I also thank the German Government and the German people for the important and steadfast support for the Good Friday Agreement and our peace process after the fallout from Brexit. It has been key along with the support member states across the EU. I am sure we can continue to learn from and engage with the German people and the German experience as we journey towards our own reunification in the years ahead.

I wanted to reflect on the positive launch of the Northern Voices exhibition yesterday as part of the Seanad 100 celebrations. I thank the Cathaoirleach and all those involved in yesterday's event, including the Leader. I pay tribute to former Senators, Catherine McGuinness, Ian Marshall and Martin McAleese, for their thoughtful contributions at yesterday's launch. I thought the three of them, and their speeches, were indicative of the positive experience of having diverse Northern voices here in the Seanad. I hope that as many people as possible get to see that exhibition, engage with it and reflect on the issue at the heart of it.

I do not disagree with the Leader's remarks, which got a bit of coverage in the media last night, on the Taoiseach appointments to the Seanad and setting aside some of those for diverse Northern voices. While I endorse and support that, ultimately the best thing we can do, which was reflected in Ian Marshall's speech yesterday, is to get to the point where we reform the Seanad to ensure universal franchise and that, as we agreed in the Seanad reform Bill, citizens across our 32 counties would have a vote in future Seanad elections.One thing that Ian Marshall and I agreed on several times in the previous Seanad was that while we were very proud to be "Nordie" voices in the Seanad, we did not want to be a novelty. We wanted to be here in our own right regardless of whether we came from the British, Irish or any other tradition. We wanted to be here on the basis of our own Irishness and everything that diversity represents. I encourage the Government to seriously consider tabling the Seanad reform Bill because there is so much in it for us all to consider. A hell of a lot of hard work was put into it. In our own group, Senator Warfield led and Senator McDowell chaired that committee. There is a significant opportunity in that for us all to ensure the Seanad is just not reflective of the North but is reflective, as we advocated yesterday, of so many of the rich tapestries of Irish life.