Before we commence, I am sure members will join me in conveying our deepest sympathies to the family of the late Professor James Dooge, who died over the weekend. Professor Dooge was a leading Member of Seanad Éireann for more than 30 years and was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1981. Many members will remember him as a very affable and friendly person who put everything from his very wide experience into the Seanad while he was a Member. May he rest in peace.
Expressions of Sympathy: Death of Former Member
I served in Seanad Éireann with Professor Dooge both before and after his term as Minister for Foreign Affairs. I very much wish, on behalf of the Labour Party, to join the Chairman's expression of sympathy. It is interesting that Professor Dooge has died during the current international circumstances in which we find ourselves. He and the late Professor Eamonn Nash were both world experts on hydrology. It was one of the great achievements of the Department of Foreign Affairs to run a hydrology course that awarded the first PhDs in hydrology in Europe to people from China and several other countries, some of whom now work in flood forecasting institutes in different parts of Asia. Tragically, the Department of Foreign Affairs was eventually bullied out of this area by those who felt it should be in the education portfolio but who then refused to fund the programme. The programme is no more. It offered PhDs, masters degrees and technical qualifications to people who were in charge of carrying out computer forecasting for floods and so forth. It was one of the Department's great achievements.
At that time, Professor Dooge and the late Professor Eamonn Nash were two people who read papers that received accolades from the world. Professor Nash was associated with what I have just described in UCG while Professor Dooge, who went on to become president of the Royal Irish Academy, was one of the world scholars and we were all very proud of him. It was a privilege to be in the Seanad at the same time as him. Incidentally, we differed on the establishment of a foreign affairs committee and the powers it should have. He wanted a milder version than what I had in mind.
May he rest in peace.
I have been attempting to fill Professor Dooge's shoes in representing the NUI since he left the Seanad in 1987. He is a man for whom I had the greatest admiration and I consider him a role model for politicians at a time when the general view of politicians is at a very low ebb, with much trust and confidence lost in our noble profession. When one considers somebody such as Professor Dooge, who made a huge contribution to academic, national and intellectual life and to global issues, he appears to have been almost a renaissance man. He is somebody who really made a contribution and I feel privileged to have known him and to have worked with him now and again.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal.