Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I join in that message of sympathy to the Mills family. Michael Mills was a doyen of political journalism in Irish parliamentary politics for many years. He was very distinguished and went on to be the first Ombudsman, a position he discharged with a great sense of fairness and justice and with great effectiveness. He was a fellow constituency man of mine as a native of County Laois. We convey our sincere sympathy to his wife and his eight children, his many relatives and his friends. It is a sad coincidence that we buried a former President yesterday and Michael Mills will be buried this morning. They were two people who met frequently and informally in their retirement. They were close friends who shot the breeze on many occasions and I am sure many of us would like to have been a fly on the wall to listen to their conversations.

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