Nikki Bradley (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have so much that I want to say but I have only three minutes. For a Donegal woman, three minutes is not a long time. As we all know, we like to talk. First and foremost, I thank everybody in this room. I have been welcomed warmly, as have my family who are here today. I am so honoured to see them here, including my fiancée. We have been given the warmest welcome and I thank everyone for that. I also thank the Taoiseach because without his nomination, obviously I would not be here. This is an incredible personal honour for me.

Once the madness dies down, I am genuinely so excited to actually get to work. What I have been working towards over the past number of years is to be an advocate and a voice for people like me with disabilities and their families. I have been through quite a few things myself but I have learned from them and have grown to become quite resilient as a result. I want to be able to pass that knowledge and experience on to other people. I want to improve services for everybody within the disability community. There are some smaller issues I would like to work on such as a universal access key that will stop the misuse of disabled toilets by those who should not use them. These smaller issues are ones that other people might overlook but they can impact a disabled person's daily life and reduce their quality of life. I am determined to tackle those smaller issues as much as the wider ones.

Being from Donegal, there is no getting away from the defective blocks issue. We have all seen it. We have personal experience with it. Some of my friends have lost their homes. We have seen the devastation. I have had conversations with the Taoiseach and various members of the Government in Donegal as to what we can do to try to improve the situation for the families affected.

Another area I really want to focus on is young people. They are the decision-makers of tomorrow. I want to encourage more young people to use their vote. I also want to encourage fully able young people as well as those with reduced mobility to look at sport because there is a direct correlation between a positive mental attitude and sport. It is important for young people to get outside into the open air and enjoy what our country has to offer. These are some of the many things, off the top of my head, that I am thinking about and I am so looking forward to working with everyone here. Once again, thanks so much for the opportunity.