Before proceeding to the Order of Business, the House will hear expressions of sympathy on the death of former Member and Minister of State at the Department of Finance, the late Deputy Joe Bermingham.
Death of Former Member: Expression of Sympathy.
It is with considerable sadness but also with many happy memories that I rise to pay tribute to the late Joe Bermingham. Joe Bermingham was, as we all know, the chairman of the parliamentary Labour Party for ten years. He was for many years Minister of State at the Department of Finance with responsibility for the Office of Public Works. He was a member of Kildare County Council from 1967 onwards and a member of many subsidiary bodes of that council. He was also deeply involved in the Gaelic Athletic Association and was a strong supporter in every sense, on the playing field and the political fields, of his native County Kildare.
It is in none of those official aspects of Joe Bermingham's life that most of us who knew him well will remember him. We will remember him principally for his fairness, honesty and humanity, his ability to convey his own views without giving offence and to put things as they were without any gloss or imaginary presentation. On behalf of my party, Fine Gael, which worked closely as a party with Joe Bermingham in his work for the Labour Party over many years, I pay tribute to him and express our sympathy to his family. I express our sympathy and shared sense of loss to the Labour Party and join with all those who pay tribute to his memory.
I join with the Taoiseach's expression of sympathy on the death of our former colleague whose passing all of us on this side of the House deeply regret. Joe Bermingham represented the constituency of Kildare for many years at all levels. He was a widely respected and hard working public representative. For many years he was associated with the Workers' Union of Ireland and with the GAA. He served conscientiously as Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, a body for which he had much regard in terms of the tremendous work it did.
Mr. Bermingham was always concerned with protecting the basic fabric of social services and with looking after the less well off with regard to such issues as the provision of primary schools and minimum levels of social welfare assistance, matters which he continually raised in the House. In many debates he argued the need of ordinary people for educational and welfare services.
Apart from his interest in politics the late Mr. Bermingham was very interested in Irish poetry and in reading as were his family. We in Fianna Fáil extend our sympathy to his family and friends. They have the consolation of being able to reflect on a man who served the country well. As chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party under three of its leaders, his cool management of the party's organisation won him great respect from people outside it. The work he has done will be long remembered in the House. Many of us had the privilege of knowing him as a friend and a good working colleague. Sheas Joe leis an bpobal i gcónaí agus bhain sé clú agus cáil amach dá phairtí agus dó féin. Ar dheis lámh Dé go raibh a anam fíor-uasal.
On 11 August, when we learned of the passing of our former colleague and good friend, it was an occasion of great sadness. Joe Bermingham served the people of Kildare at county council level and in the Oireachtas for many years. He served as a TD from 1973 to 1987 and was a member of Kildare County Council from 1967 until his death. He was chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party from 1976 until 1986.
He served his country well as a Minister of State at the Department of Finance with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works. I know from the many former civil servants I met at his funeral that he was a respected Minister of State who took great pride in the work of the Office of Public Works which he protected in everything it did.
Joe Bermingham served as chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party in a fair and even-handed way. He was always prepared to listen and allow members make their contributions. At the same time he would always remind us of who the chairman was and he ruled the roost at our parliamentary party meetings.
He had a great sense of humour and great compassion for people. He served the people in the Labour movement and the wider trade union movement as an effective parliamentarian and member of Kildare County Council. We have lost a good friend but a man who has left a legacy of service to the people of kildare. We extend our sympathy to his family. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
We were all genuinely saddened to learn of the death of Joe Bermingham. The former Deputy had a long and distinguished record of public service as a Minister of State, as a member of Kildare County Council and during his ten years as chairman of the Labour Party. Many of us knew him as a lovely, decent man — one of the real characters around Leinster House, somebody whose company we all genuinely enjoyed. To his family and to the Labour Party of which Joe Bermingham was a member for so many years, I want, on my own behalf and on behalf of the Progressive Democrats, to extend my sympathy.
Like everyone else in this House, I was saddened to hear of the death of Joe Bermingham. That Joe passed away in the middle of the summer, when politics tends not to get the same attention as it does for the rest of the year, explains perhaps why his passing did not receive the attention it merited.
Joe Bermingham was an influential figure in politics over many years in this House and in the Labour Party. He was what might be described as a politician in the traditional mode with strong links to the trade union movement and the GAA. Most of all, he considered his obligations were to his constituents whom he served extremely well. Joe was a man who preferred solid, low-key work to the flamboyant gesture but we all know that, at the same time, he was prepared to stand for his principles and to make sacrifices for them. In the years in which we were both in this House together, I always found him to be an extremely kind and courteous man. I extend my sympathy and that of my party to his family and friends.
The death of Joe Bermingham in August marked the end of an era in politics, particularly in Kildare. I worked closely with Joe from 1968 for 25 years. As everybody in this House knows, he was a direct, straight and honest man who would not have pretended that diplomacy was his strongest point.
He was a friend of mine for a long time. He was my mentor and trained me in the art of politics. He was an important figure at national and local level for reasons that have already been mentioned. I regret that I had differences with Joe Bermingham towards the end of his career. That is something I will always regret because I regarded him as a true friend and somebody who assisted and supported me on many occasions.
Joe Bermingham was a champion of the poor and was concerned about them in everything he did. He wanted to eliminate poverty and spent his life striving to achieve that. I am pleased to have been associated with him. I am sure he will rest in peace.
As a fellow Kildare man, the biggest tribute I can pay Joe Bermingham is to be as brief and direct as possible. If he was here, I know that if the tributes went on too long he would say to the person nearest to him "isn't that the greatest load of you-know-what you have ever heard?"
I am the longest serving Kildare TD currently in the Dáil who was here with Joe Bermingham. It would probably have been easier for him to serve the people of Laois because he lived at a point in County Kildare which is furthest from any of the main population centres in the county. It was quite remarkable that, of all the TDs in this House, Joe Bermingham was comfortably re-elected time after time whether his party was in the ascendant or in the decline.
Joe Bermingham was a practical and honest politician. We became great friends, maybe that was because we lived a long way from each other.
Joe was a bachelor and I spent many nights talking politics in his house in Castlemitchell. It was strange that he and I became great friends, particularly during his time as chairman of the Labour Party because he had a deep rooted suspicion, as most Labour people have, of anything to do with Fianna Fáil. He held the view — this may be of interest to the Tánaiste — that his Labour Party parliamentary colleagues who caused the greatest trouble came from a Fianna Fáil background. I am sure the Tánaiste knows that was Joe Bermingham's view.
We had a wonderful time as Deputies in Kildare. We discussed elections before they took place and decided what we would do and we made a promise that we would not offend each other, regardless of what we did to anyone else. He served Kildare well, as his friends and relatives around Castle-mitchell know, and he was greatly involved in the GAA. Although he was not a member of the Labour Party at the time of his death, he was a Labour Party person in the truest and oldest sense of the word. I do not know if he would have been comfortable with the current Labour Party — I do not say that in a denigratory manner — but Joe Bermingham came from a Labour tradition which was prominent in County Kildare. He followed in the footsteps of William Norton.
I hope, as he often said, that he is surrounded in Heaven by decent people.
Like my colleague, Deputy McCreevy, I lived some distance from the late Joe Bermingham but I also got on well with him. Joe was a hardworking, deeply committed and diligent politician who brooked no nonsense. He had a direct approach, of which we were all aware. Those of use who served with him on Kildare County Council — I had the privilege and honour of doing so for almost 20 years — knew the depth and value of his commitment to his constituency and constituents and his ongoing concern for their needs. He was a man who gave himself entirely to politics.
Like Deputy McCreevy, I brought many hopeful Senators to his door throughout the years whom he interviewed with great interest. I was an interested spectator at most of those interviews. He had a wonderful way of interviewing them, which did not put aspirants at ease but sent them away in the hope that anything could happen afterwards. Joe was inimitable in this regard. He always gave sound and direct advice. His entire political life was based on a direct approach. We will miss him greatly.
It is with sadness that I pay tribute to a former Member of this House. The late Joe Bermingham was a Member for 14 years, during which he served the people of Kildare, particularly south Kildare, with great dedication. He lived a life similar to those he represented, which was unusual. He was a loyal and true member of the old Labour Party and he represented them exceptionally well in Kildare. He is and will be sadly missed. The greatest tribute we could pay to him is to continue doing the work which he did so well and for so long in Kildare. The highlight of his political career was when the former Taoiseach, Dr. Garret FitzGerald, appointed him Minister of State at the Department of Finance. I have no doubt that when he closed his eyes on 11 August, St. Peter told him he was now on the first team.
Members rose.
Let us rise in prayerful silence.