It is our sad duty to hear expressions of sympathy on the death of the father of the House, the late Deputy Neil Blaney.
Death of Member: Expression of Sympathy.
It is with a sense of very deep sadness and shock that I rise to pay tribute to the memory of the father of the House, Deputy Neil Blaney. Neil was elected to this House in 1948 and served as a Member for 47 years. In that time, the confidence of the people of Donegal in Neil Blaney was renewed time after time. He overcame electoral challenge after electoral challenge, and did so for a good part of that time without the benefit of membership of a national political party.
It may be some small consolation to Eva, his wife, and to his children to reflect on why the people had so much confidence in the man they will now miss so much. I suppose that only someone from Donegal can really understand or express that adequately. I had one or two opportunities to see Neil Blaney at work as a politician in his area. I remember very well standing in the square in Carndonagh during a by-election. As Members will appreciate, one never stands listening to the political rallies of one's opponents. However, while passing through the square in Carndonagh on the way to where I was staying I heard Neil Blaney speaking and I could not move. It is the only time in my life that I remember being frozen in position by the magnetism of a platform speaker.
In my view, no other public platform speaker, with the possible exception of James Dillon, could hold an audience with the magnetism which Neil Blaney could, regardless of whether they agreed with him. That ability to hold his audience, which he was particularly able to do in the traditional open air venue for political activity, came from within himself. That magnetism was not manufactured or artificial but real. It came from his deep conviction of the justice of his views and the rightness of his cause. The genius of Neil Blaney as a politician was that he was still able, while holding such deeply contested views, to work as part of a team which consisted, I am sure, during much of his ministerial career of people who, for equally good and sincere reasons, did not altogether agree with the views.
He had an ability to work with people, which was especially shown during his time as an Independent Member of the House. Many Independent Members came and went during Neil's long period as an Independent Member. However, I am sure that all of them — including the most recent, Deputy Fox — will say that Neil Blaney showed a warmth, sympathy and understanding of the difficulties attendant on membership of this House. He also showed an understanding of the bewilderment felt by any Member entering this House for the first time. I experienced that kindness on the part of Neil Blaney when I entered the House in 1969.
He was, of course, a man of great achievement. Many of the commentaries which will now be written on Neil Blaney's career will focus on one year — 1970. That would do Neil Blaney a grave injustice because he was the longest serving Minister for Local Government ever. He was also Minister for Agriculture and held numerous other ministerial posts. In those posts he acted at all times with robust courage. In the one year when he was a Minister and I was a member of the Opposition, I remember well how Fine Gael regarded putting one over on the then Minister, Deputy Blaney, as the greatest possible achievement in political life. He was the hardest man to criticise because he always had a tremendous mastery not only of his brief but of this House from his time on the Government benches. That mastery was built on a record of work as a Minister.
As a Minister he did a great deal for his county of Donegal, another reason the people there held their faith in him when others did not. He had tremendous support throughout the west of Ireland as witnessed by his success in European elections.
On behalf of the Fine Gael Party which consistently held a different point of view from that of Deputy Neil Blaney and on behalf of the Government as Taoiseach, I wish to express our sympathy to Eva, his sons and daughters, his brothers and sister and all those who supported him throughout his long political career. It is worth recalling that I was only one year old when he was first elected to the Dáil. I hope it is some small consolation to those who will miss him so much to reflect on the confidence placed in him by so many people and the friendship of so many of his opponents during the years.
Once more the national flag is flying at half mast over Leinster House this morning. It was with great sorrow that I and my party learned in the early morning of the passing of the father of the House. As the Taoiseach said, Deputy Neil Blaney was by far the longest serving Member of the House, having been returned at every election since 1948. It is hard to believe that a Member could serve for such a long period in Leinster House. He spanned the Administrations under successive Taoisigh since Eamon de Valera — a remarkable history.
Older people remember Neil Blaney as an exceptionally effective Minister in the late 1950s and through the 1960s. He served briefly in the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, nine years as Minister for Local Government and three and a half years as Minister for Agriculture. Although it was a long time since he was Minister, he had clocked up a great deal of ministerial experience.
He is well remembered among the farmers for the vigour with which he promoted their welfare and livelihood, efforts of which he was proud. He helped to put rural infrastructure in place by promoting group water schemes all over Ireland. He was also responsible for widespread road improvements and giving a real impetus to housing policy. He steered through the basic planning legislation of 1963 under which we all still work. Not a day passes that a public representative does not need to deal with the 1963 Planning Act, one of Neil's achievements. He established An Foras Forbartha and started the work of creating the planning regions. An account of local government for the period from 1957 to 1966 states that a great deal of the innovation marking the early years may be credited to him.
The loyalty he commanded during the rest of his life can only be understood by the fact that he was remembered as one of the great Ministers of the 1960s. I was born a few years after he was first elected to the House. He never lost interest in politics. People will speak of all he did for Donegal and of his ministerial experience, but when I was Minister for Finance I had the benefit of his views and fears about CAP and GATT. He did not support the direction we were following in respect of Europe, particularly regarding European Monetary Union. Yesterday I said that Deputy Brian Lenihan was of the modern age, but I believe it would be incorrect to apply that description to my late colleague, Deputy Neil Blaney, in light of recent conversations I had with him. If we were to follow the direction of his views on European Monetary Union, the proposal in that regard would have no chance of being achieved in 1999 or in 2005.
During his ministerial period, he was an effective political campaigner famous for securing by-election victories, sometimes for those who would stand far apart from him after they were elected. He fought general elections in a full blooded way and played a major part in securing a majority for our party in the 1969 election under Jack Lynch.
The outbreak of troubles placed great strain on everybody as the Government and all parties of the House grappled with the problem of the appropriate direction to follow. Neil Blaney represented a traditional strand of republicanism as it would have been universally understood when he was first elected to the House. We believe his philosophy was best summed up by the all-party declaration of 1949. Even though the Fianna Fáil Party and Deputy Neil Blaney went their separate ways after the difficulties of 1970 he continued to be held in high regard for many reasons by a large section among our elected members and supporters throughout the country. It was an abiding regret of many people that despite attempts by various leaders it did not prove possible to rejoin his independent Fianna Fáil organisation with the wider Fianna Fáil Party. He continued to enjoy electoral success making a valuable contribution to the European Parliament as well as the Dáil, in which he had a great interest although we did not always agree with him. His republicanism was never anti-European. He remained a lone and sometimes outspoken voice in the House whose views were genuinely independent and were listened to with respect and attention, even if people were not always in agreement. He spoke not only of the North but of the need for economic and social development. As a Member who was elected to the House 18 years ago, those are the issues on which I remember him mainly speaking in the House. He spoke of how life could best be developed in towns and throughout the country. He felt passionately about the disgrace of emigration and high unemployment in his native Donegal and on the western seaboard.
In more recent times, particularly during the past year when many of us had an opportunity to work closely with him in the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation at which he was a keen attender, he represented one of the poles of opinion. At its first meeting just over a year ago he warned that we should not think that because of the ceasefire peace was around the corner. Those who were present at that meeting, including many Members of this House, will recall he spelt that out clearly with great gusto.
Deputy Neil Blaney made an important contribution to this country in Government and in parliamentary life. He was a representative voice and it was important that he should have been heard. He had a strong mandate from the people who elected him to the House. On a personal level he got on well with people of all traditions. I join with the Taoiseach's remarks about how he helped people. He was a good adviser.
In more recent times when I held the post now held by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Quinn, Neil Blaney made representations to me on behalf of the Technical Group and explained how a Minister should be able to get around various matters to help that group. He was not representing a body that held one view, but I suppose he could claim credit for how he helped that group in the electoral Bill as it appears that group has fared better than other parties. I suppose that will be the last credit he secured on the floor of the House if things remain as they are.
Neil Blaney represented all traditions. I respected him personally, as did members of my party and another generation of Fianna Fáil people. We extend our condolences to his wife Eva, his five sons, his two daughters, his extended family, his brothers and sister and all his great supporters who were so loyal to him. Ar dheis láimh Dé go raibh a anam fíor uasal.
I express sympathy to the Blaney family on the loss of a father and husband. As the father of this House, the House will be the poorer for the death of Neil Blaney who served in public life for 47 years, almost half a century. We have been reminded that when Neil Blaney became a Member, the Taoiseach was but one year old; leaders of other parties and myself had not been born. That was an incredible period of public service. Many of us will have memories of Neil Blaney, the younger Neil Blaney, the ministerial Neil Blaney. He was a robust politician in every sense of the word. He was also a strong member of the Fianna Fáil party. He had strongly held views and never hesitated to express them.
Neil Blaney will be remembered for many things. As Deputy Ahern said he will be remembered above all for his involvement in the Planning and Development Act, 1963, which set a new course for planning and development here which, by any standards, was a milestone in the planning and development legislation and for his contribution to the development of group water schemes, which are extremely important to people in rural areas. They continue to be developed today and have an important role to play in life in rural areas.
He served with distinction in many ministries and in each he had a mastery of the brief, a mastery which he retained to the end when he questioned Ministers on the conduct of official business.
He was also a legend in many respects. I saw Deputy McCreevy smile when Deputy Ahern mentioned the contribution Neil Blaney made to by-elections. There are those of us in other parties who would have wished he was not so successful in the contribution he made to by-elections. Deputy O'Leary from south Kerry will remember the enormous contribution made by Neil Blaney. I only wish he had left some record of those and perhaps we could all learn from them. We express our sympathy to his wife, Eva, and to his sons and daughters. It will be difficult to replace Neil Blaney whose loss we mourn this morning. He gave 47 years of service to the people of Donegal, a service which has been unequalled in the history of the State.
The death of Neil Blaney marks the passing of one of the truly legendary figures of modern Irish politics as he was the colossus of Irish political life. Having been elected to this House for 47 years, and particularly since 1970 as an Independent, was an extraordinary feat. He was also elected to the European Parliament. To have been elected as an Independent in a three seat constituency was remarkable. Neil Blaney will be best remembered, as others said, for his political and organisational skills and the machines he mustered during by-elections in the 1950s and 1960s for Fianna Fáil candidates are now part of the Irish political folklore.
His adherence to a fundamentalist republican analysis of the conflict in Northern Ireland will serve as his most enduring characteristic. Though I always felt it was a pity he did not try to embrace the challenge of trying to reconcile the British and Irish identities on this island, he, nonetheless, clung to those beliefs which were sincerely held and very forcefully expressed. To his widow, Eva, and to his family I extend on my own behalf and on behalf of the Progressive Democrats my sympathy.
For the second time in 24 hours we are mourning the loss of a Member, one of the longest serving Deputies who was first elected to this House before many of the younger Members were born. It is no exaggeration to say he gave a lifetime of service to politics and to the people. I disagreed with Neil Blaney on many issues, none more so than in relation to Northern Ireland in regard to which he had a deep traditionalist view. At one point I was shocked when he declared his pride in having helped to establish and create the Provisional Republican Movement, a movement which in my youth I had sought very strongly to prevent being created. However, today is not the time for judgment on these issues; history will make its own judgment.
As the Taoiseach said, he should be remembered for his long service in the Department of Local Government. There will be those who will criticise him for the creation of Ballymun in my constituency. I do not believe he should be criticised for the creation of Ballymun even though it has not worked out in the way many of us thought it would. The people who first moved in to the seven towers, named after the signatories of the proclamation, felt they were in seventh heaven when they moved into those flats, because of the conditions from which they had moved. That should be acknowledged and not denigrated. We have much to do in Ballymun to solve the problems there but that is our responsibility today and not that of Neil Blaney.
Neil Blaney had already clocked up 13 years as a Minister before the traumatic events of the 1970s when the eruption in Northern Ireland resulted in him losing office. Nevertheless, the people of Donegal and Connacht-Ulster continued to give him their loyal support and in turn he gave them his loyal support. I offer my condolences and those of my party to the family and friends of Neil Blaney.
On behalf of the Independent group of Deputies — our numbers are getting smaller — I tender our sincere sympathies to the family of the late and much revered Neil Blaney. It is a peculiar twist that Neil and his old sparring partner, Brian Lenihan, should pass on within a matter of days of each other.
Over the last 12 months since the inception of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation I came to know Neil Blaney quite well. Most of the meetings we had in connection with the Forum were held in his office and, more often than not, they wound up in more convivial quarters in this establishment. He had an amazing ability to recount stories of electioneering, especially in by-elections, how they were won and how they would have been won except that someone did not do as he had told them. All things come to an end and Neil Blaney has passed on. He will be sadly missed throughout the country but even more so in his beloved Donegal. May he rest in peace.
As chairman of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs I am grateful to you for allowing me to express on my own behalf and on behalf of the committee our sympathy to the family of Neil Blaney and to his many friends of all parties and of none. He was a member of a delegation which the committee sent to meet its counterparts in Budapest earlier in the year. At that time he was ill and sometimes in distress but it did not prevent him from being an unstoppably active member of the delegation. He took his participation in the work of that delegation as seriously as he did everything else in this House. Indeed, there are many Members, particularly those who have served in Government, who have had "passages of arms" with Neil Blaney and nobody better than Neil would understand the ambiguity of that phrase. In particular, I remember discussions with him on the Extradition Bill, 1986. Neil had the ability to be at the same time a political opponent, a loyal colleague and a personal friend. It is in that way that many of us here will remember him. Solas na bhflaitheas air.
For the second time in a week we are mourning the loss of an outstanding Member. This man was unique in many ways. Neil Blaney will go down in history as one of the legends of politics. He was a passionate believer in the eventual unity of Ireland and he never wavered in that belief throughout his life. His skills as an organiser were known all over the country where he led the famous Donegal mafia and many by-elections whenever and wherever they occurred. His record as a Minister was exemplary. He served in three different Departments but perhaps the one he enjoyed most was the Department of Local Government where he served for nine years. This was an area in which he had an enormous interest because it dealt with many problems of the type of rural area from which he came. Civil servants often marvelled at Neil's grasp of detail in the most complex situations. He only had to be briefed once and he could then answer any question without the slightest difficulty.
The House will be aware that the painful events in Northern Ireland during the early 1970s led to the parting of the ways between Neil Blaney and Fianna Fáil. That parting, however, could never be regarded as a complete split. He often said: "I was born into Fianna Fáil and I will always be Fianna Fáil". The fact that his new organisation was named Independent Fianna Fáil was evidence of that. It was clear that Neil's magnificent poll topping victory in the European election of 1979 was largely due to the tremendous support he received from Fianna Fáil voters throughout Connaught-Ulster.
I met Neil Blaney a few weeks ago at his home in Sutton where he expressed the wish to return to this House again — a desire he was not to fulfil. It was his intention to return to Donegal and to visit Kerry also where I believe he had a tremendous following. When I was at the Listowel races recently I was amazed by the number of people asking about his well-being.
We have lost the father of the House. He had become as much of an institution as the House itself. Neil Blaney will be missed not only by the Members of this House but by many people in the Civil Service as well as the staff in this House whom he got to know so well. May he rest in peace.
I wish to be associated with the tributes being paid to Neil Blaney. He gave me some pointers when I ran in the Wicklow by-election and in my opinion he was truly the master. I am sure his political career will be well documented by the media in the next few days but a day which is very special to me was one of the last days he spent in this House when he honoured me by introducing me to this House. On behalf of the Wicklow and East-Kildare Independent grouping I extend my sincere sympathy to Neil's wife and family.
Members rose in their places,