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Dáil Éireann debate -
Friday, 15 Dec 2000

Vol. 528 No. 4

Adjournment of Dáil.

It has been the tradition in the House down through the years that on this occasion party Leaders say at few words. I wish you, a Cheann Comhairle, and all the staff a very happy Christmas. I thank you and the staff of the House for their work throughout the year. I also thank every Member of the Oireachtas and their staff. We have a large staff and it is not always possible to thank them and give them our regards, but I do so on this occasion.

To my fellow party Leaders, Deputies Harney, Bruton, Quinn and Sargent, I wish them and their families a very happy and restful Christmas. I also wish the Independent Members of the House a happy Christmas.

I wish the Superintendent well. I am glad to hear he is making a good recovery from what has been a very serious illness. I am told he will back in the House next week, which is good news.

I thank the Captain of the Guard for his work. I also thank the Clerk of the Dáil for all his work throughout the year. I thank the gardaí, the ushers and members of the Army who look after us here day in and day out, many of them on a 24 hour roster throughout the year.

I wish a happy Christmas to distinguished members of the media who report on the proceedings of the House and to all who watch the proceedings on television. I am told we did not break the TAM rating records during the course of the year, but nonetheless they were substantial.

I thank all the people who worked on the extension and renovations to the House during the year.

All the Members of the Oireachtas, the TDs and the Senators, are all due a good break over the Christmas period.

They are due a what, a break?

A decent break. People here work extremely hard and are entitled to a good rest in whatever way they choose, whether over a Ballygowan or something else. I hope they enjoy it and a few other things along the way and that they with their families have a really good Christmas. Guidim Nollaig shona agus ath-bhliana faoi mhaise ar gach ball den Oireachtas agus ar bhfoireann go léir.

I join the Taoiseach in wishing everybody he has mentioned a happy Christmas. I particularly wish you, a Cheann Comhairle, a happy and restful Christmas. Your job and that of the Leas-Cheann Comhairle is an extremely difficult one. It was difficult even this morning. Deputies on the opposition benches find themselves in conflict with the Chair more often than those on the Government side. I assure you, Sir, of our support and our understanding of the role you have to play in the House, and I thank you for it. I wish you a very happy Christmas and the same to all the people who occupy the Chair on a rota.

I do not want to go down through the list of all the people the Taoiseach thanked. I merely endorse everything he has said. I also wish to single out the Superintendent. I was not aware he was sick. I just noticed he was not here. I am delighted to hear that he will be coming back soon. It has been a very tough time for him, but I wish him well now he is back on his feet and back to work.

The past few months have been quite a difficult time for the Members. I have had to deal with a few things myself, but more particularly we have all had the disruption involved in moving to new offices in the new building. It has been a particularly difficult period for the staff, for our own staff and for the staff who have been involved in completing the new building against very tight deadlines. I thank everyone on the staff of the House, but also everyone who was employed by the various building contractors and other contractors for their good humour in dealing with the frustrations that were manifest from time to time among many of us who were anxious to get on with our jobs but who could not necessarily comprehend the physical limitations that were imposed on those who had the job of completing the building on time.

I join the Taoiseach in paying tribute to the staff of the Houses, the gardaí and the media, but I say a particular word of thanks to the staff of all of the political parties who get on pretty well. They get on a lot better than the Members from time to time, to judge from the number of them who eat together and so on. Without them we would not be able to do our jobs and I wish them a happy Christmas. It has been a very eventful year. Recently we had the visit of President Clinton and I expect we are looking forward to an even more eventful and exciting year next year which will tax us physically, mentally and in every other way. A good rest would be prescribed for all.

I wish to be associated with the remarks of the Taoiseach and the Leader of Fine Gael, who claims to appropriate the title of Leader of the Opposition.

These honours are thrust upon me. I am naturally modest.

It is a Westminster fiction that has no place in this republican Assembly.

Deputy Quinn is the first speaker to use that term in this debate.

I would like the Deputy to know his place.

I am happy wherever I am, though I would prefer to be where the Taoiseach is.

Deputy Bruton appropriately and characteristically, with his normal and wonderful sense of Christian charity, talked about the difficulties associated with physically moving office. Not everyone in the Chamber had that experience and it is my earnest desire that the Taoiseach would have it in the next year. The Office of Public Works, their architects, contractors and builders have attempted to seduce us with wonderful offices with superb views of Government Buildings. I assure the Taoiseach that I intend to swap my view of Government Buildings with his occupation of the same premises.

On a slightly sadder note, I know the Chair will agree that every Christmas families count their absent members. Three families intimately associated with this House will face a Christmas without family members, two of whom were Deputies. I refer to the families of the late Deputies Michael Ferris and Theresa Ahearn, coincidentally from the same constituency. Coincidentally, also this evening, the deceased wife of former Ceann Comhairle, Seán Treacy, is being taken to her church in Clonmel and will be buried tomorrow. I formally request the Ceann Comhairle to convey on behalf of the House a formal note communicating our sympathy to Seán Treacy, a former esteemed Member.

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

I thank all colleagues who expressed their condolences to me and my family on my recent bereavement. It is a poignant event that takes time to absorb. The Taoiseach has been through it and it visits us all in due course. Christmas has a sense of both poignancy and celebration. I am minded because of my recent experience as well as that of the families to whom I referred; we will be confronted with that realisation as we go into a hopeful and restful turning of the year.

I fully endorse what the Taoiseach and the Fine Gael Leader said about the wonderful resource we as parliamentarians have in all the staff of the House, irrespective of how, what and when they do their jobs – those who open the gates in the morning, those who clean up early and late, the printers, those who process the documentation. We speak here and presume things will be done. Staff members in the Gallery or who are not listening to me are in the engine of democracy, in this great liner of freedom and liberation which is the Republic of this island. We could not function without them and I thank them for making it possible. Frequently this glides along effortlessly and with great style and we take it for granted. We do not take it for granted. It takes time and effort. Problems arise with the Bills Office or the Ceann Comhairle's Office which we sometimes dispute but resolution emerges.

I conclude by thanking everyone and especially the Ceann Comhairle for the way he has presided over our proceedings, a celebration of republican democracy in this country.

I never cease to count my blessings that of all the generations of Irish people who have lived on this island, only three have been able to stand up in an Assembly like this and speak to ourselves in our own terms in our own Parliament, irrespective of what we argue about, and resolve those problems on our own terms. There are still many countries around the world denied that privilege and many generations of dead Irish people earnestly thought they would live to see that but who did not do so. We have lived to see it and we owe them a debt of obligation and gratitude – gratitude for their insistence on believing in the dream and obligation to ensure that dream is properly fulfilled.

I express my appreciation to the Taoiseach and the other party leaders for their kind remarks and best wishes. I extend my best wishes to them for a happy Christmas and New Year. I join with them in expressing that wish to all Members and staff. Staff have been mentioned and sometimes Members complain about late sitting, which I do myself. We must remember that if we sit here until 10 p.m. sometimes the staff may have to stay here until 1 or 2 a.m. They had to do that in the last few days and we appreciate that. I join with other speakers in extending our best wishes to them for Christmas and the New Year.

The Dáil adjourned at 4.55 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 30 January 2001.

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