Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Eileen Desmond was first elected to this House in 1965 and for the next 22 years, as Deputy, Senator, Minister and Member of the European Parliament, she served the people of Cork, Munster and Ireland with honour and distinction. For many people, she will always be remembered as one of the most outstanding women Members ever produced by these Houses. For many more, she was simply outstanding, to be counted among the most genuine, decent and able legislators and representatives of her time.

Eileen's career was all the more remarkable considering its circumstances. She was a young woman with two small children when she was widowed after ten short years of marriage in 1965. The death of her husband Dan, who had himself been a Labour Deputy and deputy leader of the party, was a terrible blow to her. Those who knew her throughout the years that followed testify that she was deservedly most proud of the fact that she raised her two daughters to be her closest friends. Through all the hard and lonely times she served in this House, especially in her early years, she relied heavily on the closeness and love of her daughters, and later her grandchildren.

Eileen was a consummate public representative, closely in touch with the people of her constituency at all times and willing to deal with even the smallest problem on a close personal basis. She lost her seat once, as a result of the re-drawing of her constituency in 1969, but regained it at the first opportunity and was never to be at serious risk again so highly regarded was she by the people of Carrigaline, Kinsale and the southern half of Cork city.

In 1979 she stood in the very first direct elections to the European Parliament and was elected as a representative for Munster. In the 1981 election, however, she chose to represent her native Cork in the general election, and after that election she was appointed Minister for Health and Social Welfare. She is remembered now as the first woman to be appointed to a senior Cabinet position since Countess Markievicz, but many thousands of unemployed people and people living on pensions will remember that her relatively short tenure in that office was marked by the highest increase in social welfare ever awarded. Although the budget of 1982 was voted down, when a Fianna Fáil Government was returned, it retained Eileen's 25% increase in the budget it brought in.

Throughout Eileen's political career, she was known for an honest, direct and yet gentle style. Her friends knew too that throughout a distinguished career she battled with illness. She was recovering from tuberculosis when her husband Dan died and she was never strong. That never, however, interfered with her determination to represent people to the absolute best of her ability. It never manifested itself in anything but good humour.

Eileen Desmond will be remembered and she will be missed. No woman has made a greater contribution to the development of the Labour movement than Eileen, and none a greater contribution to the history of our party. She will be remembered for her qualities of honesty, integrity and compassion, for the fact that she coped with personal adversity with courage and humour and for her achievements in representing people with dedication. On behalf of the Labour Party, I extend my sympathy to Honor and Paula, who have lost a mother and a close friend, and to their children, Eileen's grandchildren.

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