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Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence debate -
Thursday, 22 Jun 2017

Business of Joint Committee

I welcome members to the meeting. Apologies have been received from Senator Billy Lawless.

Before we proceed to the main business of the meeting I would like to pay my respects and that of the committee and extend condolences to the people of Portugal and, of course, the people of Britain following recent tragedies in both countries. May I extend on my own behalf and that of the joint committee our sincere sympathies and condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives in the forest fires sweeping across regions of Portugal and the recent fire that occurred in the Grenfell Tower complex in London. I trust that the expressions of condolence, sympathy and solidarity of the Irish people will show our concerns for the families, friends and indeed the communities directly affected by those tragedies.

In the past number of months there have been a number of major tragedies in Britain, two in Manchester and three in London, where innocent lives have been lost and people have suffered desperately as a result. Both London and Manchester have close ties and an affinity with Ireland. Most of us, particularly during our student days spent time working in both cities. We know the cities well. We know the great community spirit of both cities and of course the strong Irish community spirit in those cities as well. I contacted the ambassadors of Britain and Portugal following those tragedies, expressing the sympathies of member of this committee and our concern about the terrible tragedies that had occurred in recent times.

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