Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise two issues. The first is the recent presidential election in the United States and the second is the nurses' planned ballot for industrial action. I want to address briefly the result recorded in the US presidential election. I, like many, thought that Hillary Clinton would finally break the glass ceiling and we would see the first female President of the United States of America elected. I was saddened to see the results pour in and the candidate who spent her life campaigning for women's issues lose. It should be acknowledged that the Clintons have been great friends to Ireland and Bill Clinton's Administration in the 1990s focused on helping to secure peace in Northern Ireland. I do not in any way seek to take from the democratic will of the American people and it is incumbent on political Administrations across the world to prepare to maintain our positive relationship with the United States under a Donald Trump Administration.

However, I call on the Government to establish urgently a special task force to work with the American Administration to protect the many undocumented Irish who have built their lives in the United States. We all know the deep bonds that have existed between our country and the USA for generations. We know many Irish people emigrated during the Famine and they helped build the United States. We know that many Americans proudly call themselves Irish-American and now many Irish living in the USA will be deeply concerned about what the future holds for them under the Trump Administration, given the hard-line approach he took towards emigrants during the campaign. Those expressed views must leave undocumented Irish emigrants waking up in fear of what the coming years will bring. It is important that they see their Government back home liaising with the Trump Administration to ensure that some efforts are made to resolve this emigration lacuna for them.

The second issue I wish to raise is the threatened ballot of nurses for industrial action. We all know that we are living in very uncertain times. We are in the middle of Brexit, we have seen our exports fall, we have seen tax receipts from the retail sector decrease and we have seen the markets become more turbulent in the wake of last night's election result. We must ensure our public services continue to be protected in these uncertain times. We also know that there are 3,800 fewer nurses in our health service working under immense pressure. I know this because I have a family member who has been receiving services over the past 15 years during which there has been a steady decline of nurses. I call on the Minister to engage actively with the union to ensure this strike does not go ahead. The thought of this strike puts fear in the hearts of patients and their families. I call on the Minister to engage with a view to resolving this dispute within the confines of the Lansdowne Road agreement.