Rónán Mullen (Independent)

Ní raibh deis agam go dtí seo gach rath a ghuí ar ár nUachtarán nuathofa, Catherine Connolly. I want to wish, as I know many in this House and elsewhere have done already, our President-elect Catherine Connolly the very best for her tenure as Uachtarán na hÉireann. I have had the pleasure of serving on the Coiste na Gaeilge, na Gaeltachta agus na nOileán with Catherine. Whatever disagreement I might have from time to time with Catherine on some issues, sometimes very important issues, I have always found her to be a very calm, courteous and open person. Those characteristics will serve her very well as she strives to be a President for all the people of Ireland.

We live at a time when we need unifying forces in our country to bring people together. In that regard, we need to take notice of what happened on polling day, with an unprecedented 13% of people who went to the polls doing something other than registering a preference for one of the validly nominated candidates. The decision to spoil votes in the circumstances that took place cannot be viewed as an antisocial act.This was a clear expression of displeasure by many voters at the inadequacies of the presidential nomination process this time round in particular and, I believe, at the unacceptable - in many voters' eyes - lack of choice and lack of representation of diversity on the ballot paper.

Ireland is much less homogenous than it was before. There is much more division among people and people's ideas. Even within political parties, there is probably a greater level of division than heretofore. It behoves the political system to ensure that people have somebody they can vote for on polling day. As we have a single transferable vote system, there is no reason political parties could not think outside the box, for example, where they have the numbers to nominate more than one candidate from the Oireachtas.

That is the reason I have called for an all-party Oireachtas committee to be set up to look at our presidential nomination process and to hear from the public, political parties, political scientists and others to see how we can ensure that the public dissatisfaction that was recently registered does not have to happen again and how we can do it better in future, in light of the changing Ireland we are in.