Before we start into the business of the day I want to pay a very sincere tribute to the late Frank Cluskey. Frank Cluskey was a man I did not know in a parliamentary sense but I did know him in a personal way for many years. I also have read what he has said in the Houses of the Oireachtas, in his capacity as a trade union leader and, indeed, as a very fine gentleman. Frank Cluskey has epitomised for me what was best in Irish life. He did not in any sense sectionalise the people of Ireland. He addressed himself to the problems of all the people of this island and this is one of the reasons why so many tributes were paid to him. He represented the great tradition of the Labour movement in Ireland and he made no bones about that. He did address himself to the problems of the Labour Party and the trade union movement, but he never forgot the rest of the people and he attempted at all times to be fair in his actions, his deeds and words. He was a great raconteur. He was a great friend and, on behalf of the Seanad, I would like to sympathise very sincerely with the family and friends of Frank Cluskey and, indeed, with the Labour Party and the trade union movement which he so ably represented for so many years.
Death of Deputy Frank Cluskey: Expression of Sympathy.
Frank Cluskey was the most effective parliamentarian I have ever known. He was warm, he was witty, he was tough, he was stubborn and, most of all, he was compassionate. He made a very real contribution to Irish public life in Government, in Opposition and as party leader. He served this country well and he will be greatly missed. On behalf of Fine Gael I would like to join in this expression of sympathy.
I am speaking for the University Senators. I should like to say how much we shall miss Frank Cluskey as a colleague, as a human being. One of the privileges of membership of the Oireachtas is to make friends with and meet people on a natural basis, irrespective of political ideology and Frank Cluskey was an immensely likeable person. I should like to underline the uniquely good example he gave by his public life in general, by his resignation from Cabinet office on a matter of principle in particular. We all know that in this country there is an image of politics as a game, an image of politicians as self-serving and cynical, if not corrupt. It is an image which is, unfortunately, all too prevalent, an image which is based on some element of truth, regrettably. I think Frank Cluskey's lasting legacy will be seen to be that his whole life, his whole political career was a shining contradiction of that adverse image.
Over the past four to five days wonderful tributes have been paid to Frank Cluskey, and quite rightly so. This, of course, is a clear indication of the esteem and the respect in which he was held by both opponents, who were not always enemies, and by his friends. The great respect shown to Frank as a politician and a human being in those various tributes I have mentioned, were in fact borne out and given emphasis to in a much stronger way by the presence of the hundreds of people at his removal, people who travelled from parts as far away as Schull and the other side of Killarney, etc. and indeed the presence of many notable dignitaries. All this gave further emphasis to the respect and esteem in which Frank Cluskey was held.
If there is one lasting memory that will stand out about Frank Cluskey for years to come it must be the concern and activity he displayed in regard to those in our society who had nobody else to represent them. It would be superfluous for me to cover that ground now when it has been clearly recorded in both Houses of the Oireachtas over the years and in the many tributes that have been paid to him over the last few days. Above all, Frank Cluskey will be remembered by the most deprived in our society for whom he made life that little bit easier. They will remember Frank for that.
Frank had iron put into his soul. It was put there at a very early age by witnessing the deprivation that was inflicted on the weaker sections of society. That iron could not be drawn out of the man. That is the sort of a man he was. It could not be drawn out of his soul as long as people were being discriminated against or deprived in other sorts of ways. He never believed in the concept that the poor must wait. He always believed that there was corn enough for everybody. He demonstrated this quite clearly as a junior Minister, or as a Parliamentary Secretary, as they were then known, when in the Coalition Government. In fact, at the time he was described as the last of the big spenders by Deputy Garret FitzGerald. Frank Cluskey saw the corn was there. He saw there was plenty of it, enough to go around; and, being the type of person he was, he made sure that the most deprived in society got their fair share of it.
We have heard a lot of talk about how formidable an adversary Frank was. He was a tremendously loyal man. We have also heard about his tremendous wit. Obviously, some of his remarks could not be put on the record. I would like at this time just to give the public a little indication of the type of wit that Frank displayed in adverse situations, when the cards were stacked against him. I had been driving him around the country during an election and we were two days away from polling day. He had been working from 8 o'clock that morning until after midnight. His first meal was around one o'clock in the Great Western Hotel, Galway. Later, we set off for Dublin. Frank fell asleep. Somewhere near Athlone he woke up and said to me: "Jack in about two or three months' time somebody is going to tip you on the shoulder in Leinster House and say to you ‘I have just come from Grangegorman. There is a guy up there with a beard and glasses in a straitjacket and he thinks he is An Tánaiste.'" That was a man who knew his seat was about to go in two days' time. There are many stories attributed to Frank. Overall, I would like to say to the public that when you are thinking about Frank Cluskey the politician do not forget the human side of the man. Some of us who were close to him knew of many examples of this. On one occasion, when a colleague's wife was near death, he took the children home to his own house, where he and his late wife, Eileen, took care of them. Those are the things that are not well known about him, but I would like to put them on record.
I, too, certainly would like to be associated with the remarks made here. I found him a very good friend when I came up here in the early seventies. I would like to sympathise with the Labour Party on their loss.
Members rose in their places.