It is not often Senator McDowell usurps me.

I agree wholeheartedly with what he said in the context of what James Nesbitt and Harold Good said over the weekend. What Senator McDowell outlined can be very simply done through this House. We have done some very good things. I want to see the House play a part in the consultations, just as my colleague, Senator Ó Donnghaile, and Senator McDowell said. It can be easily done if we have agreement from each of the party and group leaders. We need to shape our own destiny. If the Brexit debacle has shown us anything, it is that we cannot be left, and cannot leave our children, at the behest of the Tory public school boys. Together we must shape a new and agreed Ireland, and we may as well do so sooner rather than later. People say our party should not call for a Border poll, but were we not to do so we would not even be having this conversation now. That call is to instigate the conversation that is needed on this in order that nobody is left behind. I have often said that a new and agreed Ireland to me is not about me being somehow better than a loyalist in east Belfast. It is about us all being equal and having equality of opportunity. As I said yesterday when speaking in another context, a mother on the Shankill Road wants the same for her children as I want for my children in Mayo: equality of opportunity in respect of education, careers, health and many other things that will take them through their life cycles in order that they can reach their full potential. We therefore need to work on those things that unite us and to shape the type of island we want. This is what we have been trying to do for decades, and I very much welcome that other people are on board now. This does not belong to any one party. This is the collective responsibility of all of us as citizens. We will certainly play our part, but this does not belong to any one person. There is no room for egos here; the business we need to do is too serious for that. We will certainly play our part in that business.

I listened with great interest to what Senators McDowell and Conway-Walsh said about the future of the island in the light of the increasing and awful prospect of a no-deal Brexit. I will add a small observation of my own. A most unfortunate development has arisen post the Vótáil 100 programme we held last summer. Colleagues will recall that as part of the programme, I along with Senators Conway-Walsh, Higgins and others accompanied the Ceann Comhairle to Westminster to present a portrait of Constance Markievicz to the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow. The journalist Martina Devlin has just brought to light the fact that the portrait is unfortunately no longer hanging in a public space in Westminster, as I think we had assumed it would be, but was put into storage. It has now been liberated by the Labour Party MP, Conor McGinn, and is hanging in his office. I ask that we communicate with the Ceann Comhairle about this and see why or how the portrait, gifted by our speaker to the Speaker of the British Parliament, was not kept hanging in public after last summer's presentation, which was so successful. That is perhaps a small footnote on British-Irish relations but nonetheless of some significance.

I wish to voice my disappointment that in this last sitting week, as has become an unfortunate tradition, we are inundated with justice Bills being pushed through. I know that this is not of the Leader's doing, that it comes to us from the other House. It is unfortunate, however, that we are seeing really important, long-awaited Bills such as the Parole Bill debated and rushed through this House in a matter of two or three days, even though that Bill started in the other House at the instigation of Deputy O'Callaghan in 2016. There is therefore no reason for this unseemly rush at the end of July every year. It always seems to be a particular feature of the Department of Justice and Equality and its legislation.

Will the Leader convey our disappointment that this is once again happening?

I commend Ms Louise O'Keeffe on her resilience and persistence in light of the report from Mr. Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill, which makes it clear that the conditions placed on the redress scheme for survivors of abuse in day schools should not have been so placed. I heard the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy McHugh, on radio this morning. I hope that the Government will now devise a scheme that is fair to survivors of abuse. I should declare an interest, as I represented survivors of abuse in day schools. I know how long a battle to seek justice it has been for many of them.