Evanne Ní Chuilinn (Fine Gael)

As a former sports journalist, nothing pleases me more than when Irish football makes headlines for all the right reasons on the field of play. I pay tribute to all the Irish teams. They are really showing us that there is a wave of positivity around the game at the moment, perhaps in spite of reported shortcomings at governance level. I pay tribute to all the teams, all the footballers, all the coaches and all the ancillary staff who make these things possible for us to celebrate the way we have done over the past five days. As I said, there is a wave of positivity around the game, the international game in particular, at the moment. It began with Carla Ward's women beating Belgium in that relegation-promotion play-off in the Nations League. The under-17s had a very hard act to follow last Friday night after the exploits of the senior team against Portugal the night before, but they gave us a thrilling penalty shoot-out on Friday night. I am sorry to say that since Senator Andrews stood up, they have gone two-nil down against Switzerland, but we all know what the Irish teams can do when they are behind in big games. There are about 20 minutes left in that match, so the best of luck to them in finishing that off.

To Troy Parrott and his teammates, what can we say about the past number of days? As others have said, it was a source of immense joy. Some of us have children who are waiting and waiting to see a major championship. They all ask us, "When are we going to get our Italia ’90?" We have an opportunity for both senior teams to qualify for the next world cups as things stand. Let us just hope and pray that the teams can continue on this positive wave. I just wanted to pay tribute to the players, all the coaches and the people who make these things happen on the field of play.

Finally, I pay tribute to Paschal Donohoe. I will not pretend to understand the level of work he has put into Irish life in his tenure as a politician, as a Minister and at European level, but I will say that since I met him, his generosity of spirit is one of the things that has stood out for me as a new politician, a new Senator. He is so generous with his time and his sharing of knowledge. He is not afraid to share power, and that is a sign of a real leader. We will miss him a lot not just in the Fine Gael Party but in government and in this country as well.