Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join Senator Boyhan in wishing members of LAMA every success in their two-day deliberation. In the context of the body politic, it is important we have a debate on local government, its funding and the discrepancies in some cases between the allocation of funding to counties.

I congratulate Governor Maura Healey, the first lesbian woman to be elected governor of Massachusetts last night. She is an extraordinary person who will be a wonderful governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and its people. I wish her every success as she takes up the role in January. It is a wonderful day for those of us in the LGBT community to have such a wonderful voice and leader elected in the corner office in Boston Common.

As I did yesterday, I join Senator Hoey in asking to have the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media come to the House to discuss the awarding of sporting events like the World Cup and the Rugby World Cup. I hope we would all agree that the Qatar World Cup is tainted by the bidding process and the completely awful language used around members of the LGBT community. Whatever your viewpoints, the language, which I will not repeat in the Chamber, used by ambassadors of the World Cup and members of the regime in Qatar, is wholly unacceptable, as is the lack of response of any shape by FIFA.