Malcolm Noonan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Ar dtús, ba mhaith liom comhghairdeas a ghabháil leis an gCathaoirleach and again congratulations to all the Senators elected and here this afternoon. It is a proud day for all of us, our families, my wife, Jennie, and Kitty and Stephen. We took them out of school this morning for this special occasion.It is important to have them here for such an occasion.

As the Cathaoirleach is aware, I spent quite an amount of time in the ministerial chair in the Seanad during the last Dáil term, bringing forward legislation as Minister of State, and often in fear when Senator Higgins took to her feet. Among that legislation was the Historic and Archaeological Heritage and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, the Planning and Development Act and the Electoral Reform Act, and we have talked quite a bit about electoral reform in our contributions this afternoon. I can say, hand on heart, that those significant pieces of legislation were improved greatly by the contributions of Members of this House. That highlighted, and continues to highlight, the significance of this House in improving and strengthening the robustness of our legislative process. The legislation that I was involved in was all the better for the incredible work of Senators in this House.

I pay tribute to my former Green Party Senator colleagues. We had a difficult election but part of this for us is that it is important to keep on the agenda the wider issues around climate and nature. We have a big task of work to do in this sitting of the Seanad in terms of nature restoration, looking at the weather events of recent weeks and embedding and ensuring that a strong and resilient nature is good for our food security, is good in the face of climate change and is going to improve water quality up and down the country. For me, working with farmers and the farming community will be vital and I would like to put emphasis on that in this Seanad term.

I again congratulate all Senators across the House. I welcome the comments regarding the debate that I took part in on the future of local government. I believe local government is a sleeping giant and has immense potential, but it is not being fully realised. For far too long, its role and function have been constrained and held back. Nonetheless, there is immense potential, as we have seen regarding climate action, nature restoration and putting biodiversity officers into our local authorities, and I note the role of the elected members in ensuring those officers have a significant job to do. I welcome the establishment of that task force and look forward to participating in it.

I congratulate Members on their election and look forward to working across the House with all elected Senators in the coming years.