I welcome my colleagues from the south western drugs task force. They do amazing work in the south-west region. My purpose in rising today is to congratulate our President-elect, Catherine Connolly, who is in the House this morning, on being elected as the tenth President of Ireland. Her election is certainly wonderful news for Galway, but it is also great news for the nation. She is a woman of integrity and has been a voice for compassion in the Oireachtas. I look forward to seeing her commitment to justice, equality and democracy in the years ahead.

I take this moment to acknowledge an amazing man whose Presidency was certainly defined by humanity, dignity and social inclusion. I refer to President Michael D. Higgins. I also acknowledge his wife, Sabina, who is a force for compassion in her own right. For Tiglin, the charity with which I am involved, the President did not simply offer words. He became not only a figurehead, but he invited us into his home many times. I remember a number of years back when the President was elected that I received an invitation to go to Áras an Uachtaráin. I presumed it was a big event. When I arrived, it was just me and my guest, my sister. We arrived at 1 p.m. and were there for many hours. The President and Sabina asked us all the details about our family history, how we started Tiglin, what the purpose of it was and what we wanted to do. You could see that the President took an interest and wanted to meet the marginalised people who we worked with. In the period since residents of Tiglin, the people who use our homeless hostel, have been asked to attend garden parties, the Christmas tree lighting ceremony and various events in the Áras. Even when people from the homeless cohort graduated from college, they would get a letter from the President, which really showed that not only were they seen, they were also valued by our Head of State. These gestures were not symbolic. I salute President Higgins because I think he has been a transformative President.

In a world in which we often talk about marginalisation, we had an amazing example where we had a President who opened the doors of Áras an Uachtaráin and invited us to the table. I know, wearing the Tiglin hat, that it meant the world to the Tiglin family. I just want to say go raibh míle maith agaibh to President Higgins and Sabina for making compassion the cornerstone of the Presidency.