An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-19
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Lorraine Clifford-Lee (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach

I rise today to talk about the centenary of Fianna Fáil and to say that I am a proud Fianna Fáil member standing here 100 years since our foundation. Our weekend Ard-Fheis was a great opportunity for us all to reflect on the progress we have made as a country and that Fianna Fáil has been central to that progress. While that narrative does not suit everybody, it is the truth. Fianna Fáil has always stood for progressive, centrist politics and politics that brought people together to find real and practical solutions to problems, to bring this country on, to develop it economically, and to have the vision and the unity of purpose to deliver for the people of Ireland, not to divide them but to deliver and bring people together. That is what Fianna Fáil has always stood for.
Fianna Fáil has been the centre of progress in Ireland, whether in women's health in recent years, in education or in housing. Our life expectancy is second to none across the world and that does not happen by chance. We were there when the State was founded. In its infancy, things could have taken a bad turn. They took a bad turn in many other countries across the world, but not in Ireland because Fianna Fáil was central to the stability of this country in delivering for the people. We brought this country into the EU and here we are on the cusp of taking up the Presidency of the EU. We are central to the European project and the vision of what a united Europe can deliver for the people. Let us be clear about it. It is the stability and the progress, and keeping war from our doors, that have been central.
Some people seek to divide people, stir up the politics of hate and division and push people apart for their own clickbait and their own agenda, but Fianna Fáil has never been and will never be that. I am a proud Fianna Fáil person. I am proud to be part of a party that is delivering and has delivered for the people of Ireland.

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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/2026-05-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:57+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-19