An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business Seanad Éireann — 2020-11-17 ============================================================ Jerry Buttimer (FG), Labour Panel Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach. Ar an gcéad dul síos aontaím leis an Seanadóir Ó Donnghaile maidir le cúrsaí Gaeilge. Senator Cassells made a very telling and important contribution to the Order of Business. I do not want to usurp the role of the Cathaoirleach or the very generous remarks made by Senator Cassells but I ask that the Cathaoirleach consider, in light of the request by the president of the GAA that we all light a candle next Saturday, that either tomorrow or next week the Seanad have a minute's silence to remember those who died on Bloody Sunday. I leave it in the good hands of the Cathaoirleach to do that. I ask the Deputy Leader for a debate on opening up the country again post 1 December. I know we will have another debate on living with Covid-19 later but real issues need to be discussed around retail, hospitality, students, sport and living. As legislators, we must have the debate on reopening in these Houses, not on Twitter, not in the media by the fourth estate and not by commentators. During the debate on living with Covid, I will read out a number of letters I have received from people who are struggling to live, struggling to keep their businesses going and recovering from Covid who want to a real debate on how we can co-exist with Covid. We all welcome the vaccine debate. Senator Boyhan made a very interesting point on taking motions without debate and raised issues concerning funding for the greyhound industry. I am very much supportive of the need to have debate. I will address one point to Sinn Féin Senators. The politics of division and personality have no place in these Houses. Sinn Féin is again trying to create a division among the political class about the appointment of a very honourable person to a board or a public body. We should stop that and reflect on what are our jobs and tasks in these Houses. If we learned anything from what has happened in American politics in the past six weeks, it is that people vote not on the basis of personality but on what is vital to them. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2020-11-17/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:47+00:00 Sitting date: 2020-11-17