Is é an chéad ghnó eile ná Cathaoirleach a thoghadh.
The next business is the election of a Cathaoirleach.
Glacfaidh mé le tairiscintí anois.
I will now receive motions.
Election of Cathaoirleach.
Clerk of Seanad
I move:
That Senator Tras Honan be elected and do now take the Chair of the Seanad as Cathaoirleach.
Is mór an ónóir dom ainm an tSeanadóra Tras Honan a mholadh mar Chathaoirleach an tSeanaid inniu.
It gives me great pleasure to propose Senator Tras Honan as Cathaoirleach of the Seanad. Tras has served in the position of Cathaoirleach in the past with distinction and has at all times upheld the honour of the House. As Leas-Cathaoirleach in the last Seanad she worked diligently to maintain the standards of this House. In nominating Tras. I pay tribute to the outgoing Cathaoirleach, P. J. Reynolds, who has served in both Houses with distinction. We will miss his fatherly care for us. Even though at times we did not give him the easiest of tasks, we had a very good working relationship. I know the new Seanad will have an excellent working relationship with Tras when elected.
It gives me great pleasure to second the nomination of Senator Honan as Cathaoirleach. I endorse everything the proposer has said about Senator Honan who filled this post on a previous occasion.
I support the nomination of Tras Honan who has served before in a distinguished way as Cathaoirleach of the Seanad. I know she will do so again. She has the interests of the Seanad at heart and is somebody who will encourage the Seanad to play a significant role. I also welcome her appointment because it is clear that the number of female members of the Seanad has diminished to five. That is regrettable. There were no women in the nominations to the House and, therefore, it is appropriate that we should have a woman as Cathaoirleach. I particularly welcome the appointment.
I confirm what Senator Robinson has just said. It gives me great pleasure to support this proposal. I shall never forget on the first day when I came with ex-Senator Seamus Mallon to Seanad Éireann in May 1982 the warmth of the reception we received and the way in which she steered me through a maze of intrigue to engage my support for various groups and various ideologies, and the way in which she secretly kept trace of me over the first three or four months and as soon as I was about to open my mouth or sit at the wrong table, she would be at my shoulder with her grip. Everybody who has met Senator Honan will know that grip. It is that grip which extends beyond the individual to the collective. It is for that reason I hope and trust the Seanad will have the wisdom to vote for Senator Tras Honan to occupy this very distinguished seat in the Seanad Chamber because she will occupy it with grace, with determination, with fairness. She will allow us all to have a fair, and more than fair, say. I can only hope and trust that the amount of leeway and leniency she showed Northern Senators in the past will continue into the future.
Having said that, I should like to say a few words about the outgoing Cathaoirleach, ex-Senator Patrick J. Reynolds. All of us were impressed by his tremendous tolerance, his great sense of humour, the way he could flash the gavel. When it was necessary he meant it and, when it was not, he smiled at us over the top of it as it thumped down on the table. I shall never forget his courtesy and kindness to me. I hope that, in his retirement, he will have lots of happiness and that he will be with us on many occasions. Certainly, it would be very churlish of us to welcome a new Cathaoirleach without paying tribute to the outgoing one.
On behalf of the Labour Party, we are pleased to concur with the proposed appointment of Senator Tras Honan as Cathaoirleach of the new Seanad. I wish her luck. Being a fellow Tipperary person, it gives me added pleasure to be associated with the words of praise that have been extended to her on her past occupancy of the Chair. She will be aware that, in the last Seanad, when the Government of the day had a majority, we did not oppose her election as Leas-Chathaoirleach. I reminded people that she was not a darling girl from Clare, that she was from Tipperary. I might advise new Senators not to underestimate her because she is a tough cookie. She is an extremely fair person in the Chair. She understands people. She has a tremendous respect for public representatives. Above all, she has the greatest admiration and regard for this House. She is a believer in it, has fought for its survival and recognition by the media of its importance as a House of the Oireachtas.
On the last sitting of the outgoing Seanad, when Senator Tras Honan was not present, one of the greatest tributes was paid to her by the then Senator Seán O'Leary, the outgoing Fine Gael Senator who expressed sentiments which touched everybody's heart. Obviously, he had been awarded some of the kindness about which Senator Robb spoke when Senator Honan occupied the Chair in the absence of the Cathaoirleach.
I paid tribute at the time to the outgoing Cathaoirleach. He has been mentioned again today. I am delighted to see him in the Distinguished Visitors' Gallery. I offer him our best wishes for his retirement. I might say how pleased we are that the great name of Reynolds is continued in the membership of this House and hope that it will long be represented in the Houses of the Oireachtas.
It gives me great pleasure, on behalf of the Labour Party, to endorse the candidature of Senator Tras Honan as the incoming Cathaoirleach.
Glacaim leis go bhfuil sé de cheart ag an bpáirtí is mó sa Teach seo duine a thoghadh mar iarrthóir ar an bpost mar Chathaoirleach. Tá mé sásta chomh maith gur duine cumasach í Tras Honan. Faoi mar atá ráite ag Seanadóirí eile, tá taithí aici ar an bpost agus d'fheidhmigh sí go sásúil mar Chathaoirleach agus mar Leas-Chathaoirleach.
Mar sin féin, tá mé imníoch faoi rud amháin agus caithfidh mé athrá a dhéanamh ar an rud a dúirt mé ar an ábhar céanna i 1982: is é sin go bhfuil gradam agus cumhacht ag baint leis an bpost agus leis an té a bhíonn ins an phost. Chun an gnó a dhéanamh i gceart ba cheart go mbeidh Gaeilge ar a thoil nó ar a toil ag gach Cathaoirleach i dtreo is go mbeadh ar a gcumas an teanga a úsáid ní amháin sa Teach seo i measc a gcomh-Sheanadóirí agus ar na coistí agus mar sin de ach i gcoitinne i gcomhairlí an Stáit agus sa saol poiblí go ginearálta. Is é a deir Mír 16 (1) de Bhuan-Orduithe an tSeanaid:
Déanfar imeachtaí uile an tSeanaid trí Ghaeilge nó trí Bhéarla.
Agus is é a deir Bunreacht na hÉireann, Airteagal 8:
Os í an Ghaeilge an teanga náisiúnta is í an phríomhtheanga oifigiúil í.
Dá bhrí sin, tá stádas an-ard ag an nGaeilge de réir Buan-Orduithe an Tí agus de réir an Bhunreachta. Dá gceapfaí Béarlóir ina Chathaoirleach céim síos a bheadh ann do chúis na Gaeilge. Rud eile, ón uair go bhfuil comhchoiste ar bun agus ag feidhmiú le cúpla bliain anuas ar úsáid na Gaeilge san Oireachtas agus go bhfuil bá an Taoisigh leis an obair atá ar siúl acu, neartaítear an méid atá á rá agam.
Má tá aon bhrí inár ngnó maidir le cúrsaí teanga, tá sé ceangailte orainn duine dhá-theangach a thoghadh, é sin nó éirí ar fad as an gcur-i-géill gurb í an Ghaeilge an teanga náisiúnta agus gurb iad Fianna Fáil cosantóirí na teangan.
I welcome, as did other Senators, the nomination of Senator Tras Honan of whose qualities I am in no doubt and whose experience, in itself, is an extra qualification. However, I must express some anxiety on an aspect of the post and of the candidates which I raised in 1982. According to the Constitution and the Standing Orders of this House the Irish language has a very important place. To discharge the duties of Cathaoirleach in the House, in Committee, in normal contacts — especially in what I might call a cultural Chamber — it is essential that the candidate be fluent in Irish. That has all the more force since, as I understand it, there is now an Oireachtas Joint Committee in existence which is giving fresh attention to the question of the Irish language in this House and which has the active support of the present Taoiseach. Indeed, Irish language movements, since Deputy Haughey's election as Taoiseach, are quite expectant about the new role the Irish language will play in the Oireachtas under his leadership. That being so, I should like to be assured by the nominators of Senator Tras Honan as to her competence to discharge the duties of her high office through the medium of the Irish language.
Is áthas liom tacaíocht a thabhairt don mholadh a chuir an Seanadóir Lanigan os ár gcomhair go dtoghfaí Tras Honan mar Chathaoirleach an tSeanaid. Tá an-taithí aici ar obair an phoist agus tá an-chumas aici i leith smacht a choimeád orainn agus tá me thar a bheith sásta glacadh léit. Ach is trua liom go bhfuil cáilíocht nua ag teastáil anois chun bheith mar Chathaoirleach sa Seanad. Cáilíocht nua taobh amuigh de bheith id' Bhall den Seanad atá i gceist, is é sin, líofacht sa Ghaeilge. Tá an iomarca élitism ag dul le líofacht sa Ghaelige, an iomarca de "exclusive club" ag dul leis.
Bhí seans agamsa Gaeilge a fhoghlaim agus mo chuid Gaeilge a choimeád beo, ach níl mé chun a rá le duine ar bith eile nach raibh an seans céanna acu, b'fhéidir, go bhfuil difríocht bhunúsach mar Éireannach idir iad sin agus mé féin. Mar shampla, tá Seanadóir taobh thiar díom, ar thaobh mo láimhe dheise áit nach gnáthach dó a bheith — ar thaobh mo láimhe dheise — sin é an Seanadóir Robb. Ní ghlacfainn nach bhfuil sé cáilithe bheith in a Chathaoirleach ar Sheanad Éireann os rud é nach bhfuil Gaeilge líofa aige. Ba chóir go mbeadh na gléasanna téicniúla againn i gcaoi is go mbeadh Ball ar bith sa Seanad, tré teanga gur theastaigh uathu a úsáid, agus gach rud a bheadh ráite acu a bheith tuigithe ag éinne sa Tí seo. Mar sin, cuirim fáilte roimh Tras Honan mar Chathaoirleach.
With the prospective election of Senator Honan as Cathaoirleach, I must say that one of the jobs she will do most formidably is to defend the usefulness and the worth of this House. Her own commitment to this House is the finest testament to that. If I may say on a slightly jocose note, there is a certain prominent member of another political party not represented in this House who would want to be careful that he does not meet the incoming Cathaoirleach of this House in a dark alley because the retribution that he has earned will be exacted upon him for some of the scurrilous remarks he has made in recent times. Nobody would be better able to do it than our prospective Cathaoirleach.
I want to join in the tribute to our outgoing as distinct from ex-Cathaoirleach, for the way in which he conducted the business of the previous Seanad. For the last time, as the only Member of that Seanad who distinguished himself by being suspended, I want to apologise yet again to him for my slight disorder on one occasion. He did a fine job, good humouredly and with a considerable amount of dignity.
As I said on another occasion, it was always interesting and, indeed, enjoyable to watch the grin that appeared on his face when somebody was beginning to go beyond the bounds of what is permissible under Standing Orders. He never felt that he had to intervene immediately but he always intervened before people really went too far. He did a fine job and I wish him well in his retirement, though I suspect we will see almost as much of him in the future in one way or another as we did in the past. Therefore, I enthusiastically and happily endorse the proposal that Senator Tras Honan be elected Cathaoirleach of this House.
I am delighted with Senator Honan's unanimous selection not only because she is a lady, and a very able, eloquent and capable lady, not only because she is an excellent chairperson as she has proved in the past, but also because she represents a section of the community that is sometimes very much forgotten, that is, the handicapped and the disabled. She is their representative in this House. As one who does not regard myself as being handicapped but who in the truest sense of the word is slightly so, I am always very pleased when that section of our society is placed in a very high role. By appointing Senator Honan as Cathaoirleach of the Seanad we are doing exactly that.
I should also like to pay tribute to the former Cathaoirleach, Mr. Pat Joe Reynolds, who is a neighbour of mine and I would like to wish his son, Gerry, every success in the new Seanad.
Go dtí an Seanadóir Tras Honan gúim rath mór agus beannacht, agus mar a deir an seanfhocal: "go mbeirimid go léir beo agus anseo ar an am seo arís.
Cuireadh an cheist: "Go dtoghfar an Seanadóir Tras Honan agus go rachaidh sí i gceannas an tSeanaid anois mar Chathaoirleach."
Question put: That Senator Tras Honan be elected and do now take the Chair of the Seanad as Cathaoirleach."
Os rud é nach bhfuair mé an dearbhú a bhí uaim ní féidir liom aontú leis an rún. Because I have not received the assurance sought, I must be seen as dissenting from the nomination.
Question declared carried.
Whereupon Senators rose in their places and remained standing while the Cathaoirleach proceeded to the Dais.
I would like to thank sincerely the Leader of the House, Senator Lanigan, and Senator Willie Ryan for proposing me. I also thank other Senators from all sides of the House for their very kind words. Because I feel so strongly about it I intend to pay a very special tribute to the outgoing Cathaoirleach, Pat Joe Reynolds. I would like to thank him for his kindness and support to me at all times since I came into this House in 1977. I sincerely wish him and his family long years of good health. I am also delighted to welcome his son, Senator Gerry Reynolds, to the Seanad.
I wish to thank the Taoiseach and my own party for honouring me with their nomination for position of Cathaoirleach of this House and to thank you, the Members of the House, for electing me to this honoured position. As I look around the Chamber this morning, it is natural that I should feel some sadness that some of our former friends are not with us. I refer to those who have retired voluntarily from parliamentary life and to those who failed to get re-elected. I do not want to tread on territory on which I should not do so — although that does not often bother me — but I must name one Senator and I hope the House will agree to my doing so. I deeply regret that former Senator Catherine McGuinness is not with us this morning. She was to me a great friend. She is also a distinguished lawyer and brought her tremendous ability into this House. One Senator, also a great friend of all of ours, is now gone to Europe. I will not say any more about that distinguished Senator. He is a special friend of mine, as you all know.
Former Senators have gone to Dáil Éireann and I sincerely wish them well. I hope they will be as happy there as they were in the Seanad. Some people know my thoughts on that. To each of them I extend my appreciation and gratitude for their service to Seanad Éireann. Knowing every Member I have referred to, I feel confident they will continue to serve the Irish people.
Sadness is not the order of today, for it is with joy and warmth that I welcome you all to this new Seanad. I know the new Members will bear with me when I say how delighted I am to see so many experienced Senators back with us. May I include in that group Senator John A. Murphy? I warmly welcome him back to this House. It is true to say that it is difficult to get elected in the first place, and let me tell you with five Seanad campaigns behind me, it is tougher to stay here. I salute the achievements of the Senators who have returned.
I sincerely welcome the new Senators. your election affords you the opportunity and the challenge to play a major role in Irish parliamentary life. I urge you, therefore, this morning to take up this challenge and to feel assured at all times of my support. I want to make that point quite clear. This can be a lonely place at times. When the excitement and the great movement of today are over, you can feel quite alone and that is where I, having served ten years, might come into play. Any time Senators have a problem they can always come and talk to me without an appointment. It is only together as a Seanad that we will do things which are for the good of the nation and its people.
May I refer briefly to our friends in the press and on radio and television? Your coverage of our work is sincerely appreciated for it gives our Members the opportunity to speak to a broader audience and so extend the process of democracy. Everything that has been published and broadcast has not been complimentary to this House, but I accept constructive criticism, and welcome it because it affords all of us an opportunity to reassess our role in parliamentary life.
Since my election in 1977 I have never lost faith in the ability of Seanad Éireann as a body to make a valuable contribution to the legislation of these Houses. I single out Senator Mary Robinson for kind remarks about my total commitment to Seanad Éireann, and I thank her. In order to achieve this it is essential that the practice of sending Bills for debate to the Seanad before they are sent to the Dáil is continued. During the past four years this practice allowed us to have detailed debates on several complex pieces of legislation. As a result of those debates and amendments passed, the Bills left the Seanad in a much improved form. I am happy this morning to say that the Taoiseach and his Government intend to continue to give quite a lot of very serious legislation to this House and by so doing allow us to make a positive contribution to the legislation.
I know each of you shares with me a commitment to making a full contribution to the affairs of this Seanad. I appeal, therefore, for your support which will enable me to carry out my duties as Cathaoirleach with efficiency and fairness. Rath Dé oraibh go léir.
I thought it more appropriate and in keeping with precedent that I should wait until you were actually elected before offering you the warmest congratulations from myself and the Fine Gael Party. I offer these congratulations with warmth and without reservation. We believe you will be a first rate Cathaoirleach. You have all the qualities needed to make you an excellent holder, for the second time, of the very distinguished office you now grace. You have had long and active experience at virtually all levels of politics. In the past as Cathaoirleach, you were fair, open minded and tolerant. You have been as others have said, a very strong defender of the rights and obligations of this House.
You are a stern task master who demands the utmost from Senators, on all sides of the House. You, as much as everybody else, want to see a vigorous, hard working Seanad. Like all of us you know this House is under attack. There are many outside who doubt its value and the reason for its existence and there are many who are unaware of the detailed work done in this House. Like all of us you know we must face up to these criticisms and charges. We answer them not by being petulant or by saying they are not there, but by example, work and innovation, showing that this House has a real value and more than justifies its existance. All who have the honour to be here today will want to share in your commitment to make this a distinguished and hard working Seanad.
You have personal qualities which I believe will make you an excellent Cathaoirleach. You are fair-minded and direct — sometimes you are very direct. You have style and, above all, you are liked and trusted by Members on all sides of the House. In saying all this, we are stating the simple truth and we wish you well.
In supporting and congratulating you may I say how much we, the Opposition, appreciate the decision of the Fianna Fáil Party to continue the practice of having an Opposition Member fill the role of Leas-Chathaoirleach? This has got the House off to a very good start and will ensure good relations all round and is very much appreciated.
As others have done I should like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to some of the outstanding Members of the last Seanad. The first is a person who has been spoken of very highly this morning, the outgoing Cathaoirleach, Mr. Pat Joe Reynolds. Mr. Reynolds has a very special place in all our hearts. Few people have generated such genuine affection and respect over the years as he has. He was a good Cathaoirleach. He was conscientious, fair and tolerant. He has a sense of humour, and very often a sense of humour was needed as some of my university colleagues have borne witness to. He was a good friend to all of us but he was a special friend to new young Senators. I know the incoming Cathaoirleach will continue the tradition of being a special friend to those who find the procedures and practices very strange and will need time to be initiated. Mr. Reynolds will be greatly missed here but it is some small consolation to all that his son will continue as a Member of this House and will continue the tradition of a very distinguished Irish political family in the Seanad.
Another person to whom I should like to pay a special tribute is the outgoing Leader of the House, Professor Jim Dooge. What is there to say about Professor Dooge, except that he was probably the best ever Leader of the Seanad. I believe there are many Members on the opposite benches who would share that view. He was probably one of the most outstanding Senators of the past 30 or 40 years. I also wish to pay tribute to Mr. Eoin Ryan who over the years graced this House in a constructive, conscientious and always a very positive way. He too will be missed from this new Seanad. All three men have set us a very sturdy example and they are part of the best traditions of this House.
I wish them many happy fulfilled years and I wish you every success as Cathaoirleach and assure you of the full co-operation of this party.
It gives me particular pleasure to congratulate you most warmly on your appointment this morning and to state yet again that you will have the full co-operation of this side of the House, and I am sure of all sides of the House, in what is an onerous task and one requiring all the qualities which Members who have spoken so far signalled they know you possess. As one of five women Senators, I would like to say that it is particularly significant to see a woman Cathaoirleach grace this honourable office.
It is disappointing that our numbers are diminished on this occasion but I am confident that the women who have been elected will — as you will — make a worthy contribution to this House. I wish also to express my admiration for your predecessor, former Senator Pat Joe Reynolds, who, as other speakers said, demonstrated tremendous qualities of kindness, consideration and parliamentary skill during his term of office. I know that you, too, will do a very fine job and I look forward to serving under your Chairmanship in this Seanad.
I join with my colleagues in offering you sincere congratulations on your election as Cathaoirleach. As one of the older hands who has had experience of working with you, both while you were in the Chair, and out of it, I am confident that you will guide the work of the House in an examplary manner. I assure you of my full co-operation in the execution of our constitutional task of putting through legislation.
I wish to be associated also with the fulsome tribute paid by Senator Manning to former Senator Pat Joe Reynolds with whom I have had the great privilege of working over a long number of years. I also wish to pay tribute to former Senators Jim Dooge and Eoin Ryan and to all my former colleagues. We look forward to fulfilling our constitutional role in the new Seanad and I know that with your fair guidance the House will be able to do that.
It gives me great pleasure to congratulate you on your election as Cathaoirleach. I am glad that women have one more role to emulate as a result of your election. I am a newly elected Senator but I sat on many occasions in the last Seanad when you were in the Chair. Not only were you in total command of the House and dealt in a very firm and fair way with all the business of the House but you dealt in an almost Thatcherite way with those unruly males who tended to be obstreperous at times. You have all the qualities needed for the job and a delightful and infectious sense of humour. You also have the ability to help people who are new to the House and that will be very important in this Seanad.
I wish to pay tribute also to the outgoing Cathaoirleach, the former Senator Pat Joe Reynolds. I wish him and his family well and hope that he enjoys good health and happiness in his retirement.
Reference was made here to the criticisms we have heard of the Seanad. However, I was present at the final meeting of the last Seanad when tributes were paid to the work done by Senators on the Status of Children Bill which was introduced in the Seanad. I saw the important and positive work done by Senators in regard to that Bill, how amendments were introduced and how generously that important Bill was amended. I am sure the same approach will apply in this Seanad as that is the way to make an impact regarding legislation. All Oireachtas sessions are busy and both Houses should be used to introduce and pass legislation.
I will not go through a list of Senators who might have been here. Many worthy and important people have not been elected but, of course, there is room for only 60 Senators. However, I should like to pay a special tribute to Senator Catherine McGuinness. She will be sadly missed, not only because of her contributions to debates but because of her great capacity for listening to groups outside the House and contributing to debates at universities, women's groups and so on. She was a most generous public representative.
I should like to join in the tributes to you, a Chathaoirligh, I endorse everything that has been said about you, about the way you have conducted debates in the House and so on. To say any more would be like gilding the lily. I also wish to be associated with the tributes paid to former Senators Jim Dooge, Pat Joe Reynolds and Eoin Ryan. I wish you well and I hope that we will be working together for a long time. I could have gone on in the very clever way Senator Robb did so as to be on the right side of you but I am sure you will give me leeway in any event.
I rise so that you will recognise me and get to know the sound of my voice. I have been assured by Senator Brendan Ryan that in standing at this point and making what he referred to as my maiden speech, you and I will be cutting out all sorts of such sexist language. I would prefer to refer to it as a virgin contribution. He tells me that I will lose all the perks associated with the first speech but I can assure him and everybody else that I will not be looking for those kinds of perks, I will make my voice heard.
I congratulate you on your appointment and I am more than pleased that a woman has been elected to this position and to say go dtuigfidh tusa go bhfuil sé de nós agam labhairt as Gaeilge go minic. Perhaps it is good manners to address people in the language they understand but I am sure you will accept that this is my habit and that I intend to speak trí Ghaeilge go minic. It is the duty of every member of the House to defend this institution against those who have publicly stated that it should be abolished. The people who say that and who say that membership of the Dáil should be halved are on the road to a fascist dictatorship. Every Member of the House should make it clear to the public that we have a fair and meaningful contribution to make to passing legislation.
I have incurred the rough edge of your tongue at times in the past. I have no doubt that will happen, too, in the future but you have always been fair and, although you may not be very well versed in the first official language, you are certainly well versed in the second official language.
The first defence I should make of the Seanad is by way of referring to someone who was in the House in the very recent past. He referred to "electing dumdums". This is particularly hurtful coming from someone who took the easier way of being elected to the House. I hope that that type of criticism levelled from within the House will cease shortly.
May I also pay a hearfelt tribute to your predecessor, former Senator Reynolds? I see he is gracing the House. I wish him, his wife and family happiness and a long retirement. He has been a very special friend to all of us. I am glad to see his son, Gerry, in the House with us. May I also welcome a former school colleague of mine, Joseph O'Toole? To look at Joe you would not think that he and I were in the same class. He has not weathered quite as well as I but I am glad to see him in the House and I wish him well.
I am a little bit puzzled, a Chathaoirligh, about the procedure. Maybe that is due to Senator Manning starting the ball rolling by paying compliments after you were elected. That is probably the practice in the Dáil where you cannot speak until you have a Ceann Comhairle. It is a pity that happened because in a way we are dragging the thing out a little bit. Anybody in this House who knows me knows well that I look on the former Senator Reynolds and yourself as having been a great team. Not only that, you also knew the value of some of the irrelevancies and you dealt with them in a particular way. That sums up the position. I wish you and former Senator Reynolds well. If we carry on much longer we will be here until midnight paying compliments to a lovely lady and the business before the House will be dragged on. I say that because being in the Chair at the moment cannot the Cathaoirleach put the foot down, so I hope I have taken a bit of the pressure off her.
Senator Reynolds to conclude. Thank you Senator Harte.
I hope I will not drag this out much longer. As my father is the outgoing Cathaoirleach I should like to thank each Senator very much for the kind words they said about him and how he acted with dignity and grace. I know he has made many life long friends in his long political career. I know he will cherish in his heart this day and the tributes that have been paid to him. As Senator Fitzsimons said to me when I came into the House, if I am half the man my father was I will not be too bad a fellow at all. I would also like to pay tribute to you, a Chathaoirligh. I am sure you will carry out the role of Cathaoirleach with dignity and grace and that, unlike my father, you will have the added dimension of glamour which will make it a lot easier to carry out that role. I wish you luck and co-operation.
I do not want at this stage to engage in any controversy with Senator Harte but I would respectfully point out to him that it was I who was following the precedent of the Seanad in waiting until after the election before paying tribute and that I was not importing some undesirable practice from the Dáil. That is the explanation. I am sure we can get on with business now.
Even at my age you can learn.