I join colleagues in paying tribute to our good friend and long-standing colleague, Senator Norris. I was going to say that it feels not so much like tributes as it does a sort of canonisation of Senator Norris. However, it is well deserved after 30 years and seven months, as the Cathaoirleach has said, of-----

Canonisation by an atheist would be some trick.

I thank the Senator, I will take that. Yes, if there is a sort of secular canonisation, then that is what is going on here today, but it is well deserved. The Senator has indeed been inspirational, as others have said. It has been a real pleasure for me personally to have served alongside him for the past ten years as Senators on the Dublin University panel, and I cannot believe it has been that long. He has served the constituents from the Dublin University panel so well over that time, and for the 20 years before that. He has followed a long line of progressive Trinity Senators, including Catherine McGuinness and Owen Sheehy-Skeffington. His pioneering work on his own account, both before and after his original election in 1987, has to be commended, particularly his immense bravery and courage in taking the case Norris v. Attorney General. This led to what has been described as the worst Supreme Court judgment ever, in which his case was at first dismissed by the Supreme Court. Famously, of course, it was then allowed by the European Court of Human Rights in Norris v. Ireland, and led to the historic lifting of the ban on homosexuality in 1993. However, it would not have happened without the original act of courage that he so poignantly spoke about in our recent series in Trinity on legal cases that changed Ireland. I must say, it was a real privilege to hear him speak so movingly about that experience. I do not wish in any way to undermine it, because it took immense bravery to take on the Irish State in the mid-1980s, a time when the State was so repressive towards LGBT people, women and in respect of matters of sexuality generally.

On a lighter note, I join others in wishing the Senator very well for 30 more years to come. It is not just a matter of the past but an ongoing pleasure to work with the Senator, as we did on Tuesday night in this House, when we concluded Committee Stage of historic legislation on domestic violence. I look forward to the Report Stage debate today. Senator Norris was among those who pressed hard for introduction of the new offence of coercive control, which the Minister of State introduced on Tuesday night. I look forward to continuing to work with Senator Norris on this and other important legislation.

I will finish by stating a view Senator Norris would share. I condemn the new low by US President Donald Trump in retweeting those absolutely disgusting fascist videos from Britain First. These Islamophobic videos have rightly been condemned all across the world. I join with others in calling on the Leader to ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to express Ireland's condemnation of that particular action. It really does represent, even for Trump, a new low.

I will begin by joining in the felicitous words about our good friend and colleague Senator Norris. He is an absolute gentleman as an individual and a great colleague and friend. He is a polymath who makes huge contributions to the Seanad across a range of issues, cultural, social, economic, legal and so on. His pioneering, mould-breaking and hugely change-making work in the area of establishing gay rights in this country cannot be understated. He deserves great credit from all of us and we are proud to have him as a colleague. He does a lot for the Seanad on a number of levels.

Many mainstream reliable British media sources are today reporting that there has been something of a breakthrough in the UK position on Brexit. There are reports that they are coming up with the divorce payment, but more importantly from an Irish context, there are reports that they are now willing to go without regulatory divergence on the Border, and at least acknowledge the Border issue in the negotiations in a serious fashion. That is a great breakthrough. The stated Irish position is that we want to maintain the customs union and the status quo. If we cannot do that, we want to establish the closest possible situation to that on an all-Ireland basis. We are working towards that.

In the constituency I come from, Cavan-Monaghan, there is a huge risk of a dislocation of jobs in the food processing sector, in agriculture and right across a range of areas if we do not achieve this. I am very committed to it. I ask the Leader that before our Taoiseach goes to the next critical summit to decide if we move to the next phase of the negotiations on Brexit, that we have a debate in this House and consider this issue again. Colleagues from all sides in this House have done some great pioneering work on the Brexit question. I appeal to the Leader to do that. It is important that we do and the Leader has a very definite commitment in this regard because he has given me personal assurances on it on a number of occasions. We cannot put up to 40,000 people out of work in this State over Brexit. We will have to stand firm on it.