Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I ask colleagues to join me in extending a warm céad míle fáilte, 100,000 welcomes, to Mr. Kazumi Matsui, Mayor of Hiroshima, who is in Ireland as president of the Mayors for Peace organisation. Mayors for Peace is an international organisation of cities dedicated to the promotion of peace which was established in 1982 in response to the deaths of around 140,000 people due to the atomic bombing of the city on 6 August 1945. I had the pleasure of meeting Mayor Matsui in Hiroshima in February 2023 when I laid a wreath at the cenotaph there which commemorates the 300,000 people or more who died on that occasion. As it stands, 13 towns and cities in Ireland have signed up to the Mayors for Peace initiative. I hope that with tomorrow's signing ceremony in the presence of Mayor Matsui, an initiative developed and supported by Ambassador Maruyama, this number will increase significantly. Tá céad míle fáilte romhaibh.