Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

Ba mhaith liom comhbhrón an Chomhaontais Ghlais a chur in iúl do mhuintir Liam Lawlor, to Hazel, Gerald, Ciara, Shane, Niall and the wider family. This is an opportunity to hear from people who knew Liam first-hand. Newspapers are generally known for reporting the truth but, unfortunately, in this case people reported stories that were not true and that has been proven beyond doubt.

It was clear to those of us who knew Liam Lawlor that he was a very capable and talented Deputy. He was not the type of Deputy who was in any way happy to tread water and pass time, he was always doing something. One got the impression that he was never content just to be a Deputy. When I was first elected in 1992, he sat in the Government backbenches. Very often Deputies sitting decided they would either sit at the back or on the Front Bench, but they would not sit anywhere in the middle. Liam Lawlor was certainly one of the Deputies who stuck rigidly to the back seat, waiting for his promotion. It did not come, of course, and the tragedy is that Liam is now gone from us.

I often wondered what would have happened if he had been given an official role within Fianna Fáil to be friendly to new Deputies because he was generally the person one could always depend on to engage in conversation and find out what other people were interested in. I would even go so far as to say that he liked to act the role of Minister. He certainly could carry off that role-play with aplomb. I still have a letter from Liam Lawlor as if he had been Minister, telling me what the Minister with responsibility for Sellafield was doing about the situation, as he knew my interest in the issue. That letter now takes on a new significance. In many ways it is a reminder of the Liam Lawlor that is not reported in the newspapers.

Whatever the Taoiseach and others said about his being larger than life, there was much more to Liam Lawlor than what was reported in the newspapers. It is important on a day like today to recall this and to let his family know that we knew the Liam Lawlor who is not reported in the newspapers. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a ainm uasal.

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