Today, the new Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Major-General Seán Clancy, takes over an organisation that is in very poor shape. I wish him the very best. There is a new Secretary General in the Department and I know that she will work with him to try to rebuild the force.

My colleague spoke about front-line workers and of how those who worked in the medical sector should be treated differently when it comes to recognition for their work. We have to be honest about this. What about truck and bus drivers? Truck drivers delivered food to our grocery stores. They did not know when they were going in to collect food who they were meeting and what condition they might be in. At least nurses and doctors had protective equipment. Bus and tram drivers and all of the people worked on the front line - I do not care whether they were medical or non-medical - and the soldiers who were out on swabbing duty at test centres, everybody who went to work had an equal part. This is regardless of whether they were treating medical conditions or just delivering something; they all had an equal part and we must treat them all equally.

We all received a letter from my colleague, Councillor Deirdre Donnelly, from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, over the summer about sexual abuse and sexual harassment and attack etc. Deirdre has gone out of her way to explain to all of us the process she went through in reporting a crime and she went public on this. I call on the Leader to have a debate in this House because these are serious issues, particularly for a woman who goes to a Garda station to report that she has been raped or assaulted. We need to kick this debate out into the open to discuss specifically how they were dealt with. We have the evidence from one person and I am sure there are others who would come in. Perhaps it is one of those things on which we might have a public debate on where we might bring in Ms Blackwell or some such person in order that we can talk about the things that need to change because they do need to change.

We see what is going on in the Defence Forces and it has horrified most my former colleagues because sex abuse and bullying takes place in silence behind closed doors. I ask that the Leader might arrange a debate on this issue and let us see if we can kick it out into the open to see what needs to change.

It is a very good idea to create a new bank holiday in order to recognise the work of front-line workers but I will not enter into a debate with Senator Craughwell now. This would be to recognise the heroic work that they have done for us to keep us all safe during the Covid-19 pandemic. I have no particular preference as to what that bank holiday date should be. I suggest that it would be very appropriate if we were to name such a new bank holiday the shared island bank holiday or day.

I am saying this because it would send a clear message to our loyalist fellow Irishmen that we mean what we say when we tell them that our political aspiration is that we can all live together on this island in peace, friendship and harmony. That is what we said to them when we voted overwhelmingly for the Good Friday Agreement and it is something that cannot be stressed enough, especially in light of some recent, regrettable controversy. No reasonable person could think that loyalists will ever be bullied or intimidated into a coerced constitutional arrangement that is anathema to them. Loyalist courage and resilience is not in question. The Provisional Irish Republican Army, PIRA, murder campaign proved that, if nothing else.

Certain elements choose to ignore or belittle loyalist opinion. This contributes nothing to the healing process that was the bedrock of the Good Friday Agreement. These elements seek to constantly attempt to frighten unionists with public declarations that a 32-county state is inevitable and that at some time in the future, the sectarian headcount will coerce loyalists into a nationalist Catholic state or force them out of their ancestral homes and that unionists just have to suck it up.

Such declarations are quite insulting and may well be very dangerous, no matter if they are sometimes couched in the language of respect and reconciliation. We need to restate that we recognise in full without equivocation the legitimacy of Northern Ireland. It is in that context that I make my proposal that we have a shared island day in the Republic and welcome that perhaps there might be a reciprocal shared island day in the North.

I know that I am over my time, but before I sit down I know that the Cathaoirleach will want to join me, as a Kerryman, in congratulating our fellow county man, Danny Tim O'Sullivan, who was granted the freedom of London yesterday after 50 years of philanthropy and help to Irish immigrants and people both in the UK and here in the Republic. He herded his sheep across Southwark Bridge in a time-honoured tradition and it would be nice that we would recognise that achievement for Dan here today.