Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

It is never to be forgotten I hope. That was during the environment summit, in case there is any confusion, when Deputy Higgins was doing a programme and he interviewed me walking along that beach. I never had the privilege to travel abroad with Tony Gregory, nor did I know him well — he was a very private person. However, in all his contributions here I never remember him being offensive to anyone even though he and I and many others would have disagreed about very many things. He made his point and pursued it through argument and discourse and not by offending people.

He is a great loss, obviously, to his family, to his partner and to Dublin Central, but he is also a big loss to this House. May he rest in peace.

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