At the outset, it is a pleasure to congratulate the Acting Chairman, my constituency colleague, on his elevation. It could well be a portent of things to come in the future.

What elevation?

I welcome the announcement in the budget of the recruitment of 700 new gardaí. I further welcome the fact that 15 new gardaí were deployed in the Cavan-Monaghan division after March and that at the recent meeting of the Committee on Justice and Equality, the Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, announced that an armed support unit would be deployed to Cavan. I am also hoping that Cavan and Monaghan will get a disproportionate number of the 700 new recruits. The reason is that in recent times there have been serious acts of brutal violence and intimidation along the Border with regard to the Quinn executives. Sadly, that appears to be continuing on the northern side. An extra deployment of police is necessary, as is extra vigilance.

I ask the Leader to invite the Minister for Justice and Equality to the House to discuss this. It is something that must be reviewed quarterly at least, with regard to progress, policing levels and augmenting policing levels along the Border to deal with the crisis. The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, was proactive in going there very quickly to meet the Quinn executives and deal with the issue. I seek an assurance from the Leader, first, that he will invite the Minister to the House and, second, that he will convey to the Minister my anxiety that this matter receive a review in the Houses of the Oireachtas each quarter at least, so we can monitor it until we get the desired outcomes.

I welcome the ending of what has been a denial of rights for a long time in the Six Counties. The delay has been frustrating, hurtful and very costly for many. There are people around the world who wake up today and see that in a corner of Ireland their campaigns and objectives have been realised after a very long fight. These two issues are intimately connected. Irish women and the LGBT community share a most unfortunate commonality, namely, the contemporary and historical criminalisation of their bodies and lives. Today ends that criminalisation of women. I send solidarity to all those who campaigned on these issues.

The issues should have been dealt with in Stormont and it is regrettable that they were not. Such issues and future economic, health, housing and education issues can and should be dealt with on the basis of genuine power sharing. I look forward to that day.