Sharon Keogan (Independent)

I will address the presidential election and the growing campaign calling for people to spoil their votes. Some have said that spoiling your vote subverts our democracy. I ask such people to look around the Houses they find themselves in today and to look at the portraits on these walls. Was it a subversion of democracy when 73 Irish MPs refused their seats in the British-approved Parliament to become the first Dáil? Was it a subversion of democracy for Parnell to obstruct proceedings at Westminster or when Daniel O'Connell stood for election knowing he could not take his seat? No. Such people are not speaking about democracy but about bureaucratic proceduralism. While they fret over rules and mean language, what do we see on our streets? We see a nation reaching a dangerous boiling point, while politicians take selfies at campaign concerts. For the first time in decades, we have a campaign with only two candidates. Political parties ordered their members to obstruct candidates of all view and backgrounds that are not their own. We have an election that, for many people who are struggling to live and to be heard, seems to be happening in some parallel fantasy version of Ireland. I commend all Irish people who will exercise their democratic right on Friday and vote, as they are legally entitled to do, in the privacy of the ballot box, for whomever they like or however they like. They can even vote for Jim Gavin, if they want to. However, I ask all those who do not see anyone on the ballot paper whom they believe in not to sit at home. They can still make their voices heard. If they want to, they should go out and spoil their votes. It may be dissident, but it is peaceful. It may be controversial, but it will ultimately be constructive. It is their right and it is democracy.

I also thank Senator Nelson Murray for highlighting people who give blood because I benefit from that blood three times a year. I also benefit from people giving iron. I thank the Senator for highlighting those people because they are keeping me alive.