Neale Richmond

Overall sentiment: 0.57
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I am grateful to Deputy Ó Murchú for raising this once again. I welcome the comments by his party leader this week when she declared that this is a great State and a great place to live in. It makes a welcome change from most other days of the week. There is a considerable amount of preparatory work going on from political parties across the spectrum. The Deputy referenced our own work in Fine Gael, but also the work of the Labour Party and the Social Democrats, who appeared at the SDLP conference last week. Crucially, that work is combined with the ongoing work of the shared island unit, which has delivered over €1 billion worth of investment through real reconciliation. Another thing that must be looked at when discussing a united Ireland is that a lot of work has to be done to show example from political representatives on the base level of sectarianism that at least two other colleagues on these benches and I put up with every day. If the Deputy looks at the profiles of those who are putting that out there, who bedevilled Heather Humphreys when she ran for President, the emblems and the people they support, it would be welcome if all parties and all representatives in this Chamber made it clear that any sort of united or new Ireland cannot be delivered, but we will continue that work.

Sentiment score: 0.57