Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I am pleased to have this opportunity to pay tribute to Nuala Fennell, a woman of great energy and strong achievement. On behalf of my party and the Government, I extend sincere condolences to Nuala's husband, Brian, her children, Jacqueline, Garrett and Amanda and her grandchildren, Ian, Eveline, Kate, James and Amelie. I also extend sympathy to Deputy Kenny and the Fine Gael Party on the loss of a former distinguished colleague.

Nuala Fennell was a person and politician of the highest calibre. I first got to know her over a quarter century ago when I was first elected to this House in a by-election in 1984. Nuala was then a prominent member of Garrett FitzGerald's Government and was serving as Minister of State with responsibility for women's affairs and family law reform. While she and I were not on the same side in party politics, it would have been impossible not to respect and admire her commitment and the sincerity which she brought to her official duties.

Compassion and commitment were at the core of her politics. She was a woman of great energy and her whole purpose in public life was to advance the cause of equality in Irish society. She was a moderniser and someone who believed passionately in advancing the role of women in Irish life. Her achievements in this regard are significant and she leaves behind a hugely distinguished legacy of improving and promoting equality of opportunity for women in this country.

Nuala passed away in August, when the House was in recess. Of all the tributes paid to her in the media at that time, I will quote from one which underlines the changes she helped bring about. This obituary, written by a colleague and friend, states:

The overwhelming majority of the girls who get their leaving cert results today do not know the name, Nuala Fennell, but they will study, work and live in an Ireland that is much better for women because of her. Nuala grew up in an Ireland where you could be paid half what a man would be paid for the same job. If you were in the Civil Service you lost your job as a matter of course when you got married. You had to get your husband to sign a form in order to get a library card. He could completely disinherit you in his will. Equality between men and women simply did not exist and, in some areas, did not seem possible. Her death last night was not headline news but, in one sense, it should have been because in the 70s, when a lot of pointless guff about dismantling the patriarch by the sisterhood was going on, Nuala Fennell devoted herself to women's interests in a doggedly polite, practical way and in the process helped to improve Ireland for women for generations to come.

Nuala Fennell's life's work was to ensure Irish women could come to play increasingly diverse and wide-ranging roles in the home, in jobs and in communities all over the country. She was a believer in equality among the sexes and rightly saw the progress of women in our society as one of the benchmarks of the sort of country Ireland was and could become. As a campaigning journalist, Nuala wrote extensively and persuasively on the need for enhanced equality between men and women in Ireland. This was based on a sense of social justice and a deep practical patriotism which intuitively understood that for Ireland to fully prosper we had to make full use of our greatest resource, all our people. For Nuala, a society that did not harness the full potential of all its people, men and women, was a society that was not utilising all its talents, energies, creativities, values or diversities of opinion.

Nuala was a powerful advocate and called for change with the pen. She wrote pioneering articles in the late 1960s and 1970s on women's rights in the Evening Herald, Evening Press and Irish Independent. It should be noted that she was also a front line activist who rolled up her sleeves and set about creating change, even before she entered the field of representative politics. In 1972, she was a founder member of the AIM group, which was established to look after the interests of deserted wives. She had an abiding commitment to helping the victims of domestic violence and she established the first refuge for battered women in Dublin. In 1975, she become the first chair of Irish Women's Aid and an executive member of the Irish Council for the Status of Women.

Nuala was a strong believer in the need for more women in politics and once again, she practised what she preached. She first stood for public office in 1977, when she contested the general election as an Independent in Dublin South. She subsequently joined Fine Gael and contested the first direct election to the European Parliament in 1979. In 1981, she was first elected a TD for Dublin South and held her seat in the two elections that took place in the following 18 months. In 1987, she lost her Dáil seat in an extremely competitive constituency but was returned to the Seanad. In 1989, she was triumphantly re-elected to Dáil Éireann and served in this Chamber for three more years with distinction before leaving politics in 1992 to run a successful public relations company.

Those are the facts of Nuala's tenure in the Oireachtas but behind those statistics there is a trail of inspiration which helped drive many more women into politics and public service. It is fair to say Nuala's achievements in electoral politics were a great source of encouragement to many other prospective female candidates across the political divide. Nuala Fennell did not come from a family steeped in electoral politics but, in a constituency which contained accomplished politicians such as the late Séamus Brennan and the late John Kelly, as well as proven vote getters such as Deputy Alan Shatter and Deputy Tom Kitt, both of whom still grace this House, Nuala held her own. She represented her constituents and her party with distinction. Her's is a lasting and positive impact.

She served for one term as Minister of State and although that tenure was relatively short she used her time to good effect and put in place significant foundations for a more progressive and fairer Ireland. In 1985 she oversaw the publication of the Irish Women: Agenda for Action report. That report contained strong recommendations to improve the status of women in health, social welfare, family law and employment. She also introduced significant legislation dealing with domicile and citizenship rights.

I especially want to mention today her great work in removing the stigma of illegitimacy from the Statute Book. Before Nuala came to office outdated and offensive legislative provisions in this regard dating from the Victorian era and beyond remained enshrined in Irish law. Nuala Fennell was responsible for abolishing those. Such provisions were a blight on the face of a modern republic, and especially so in a State which had its origins rooted in the objective of cherishing all its children equally. It is appropriate to say that Nuala Fennell, in a social and political climate that is very different from today, showed real political courage and foresight in ensuring children born outside marriage should have the same succession rights as children born within wedlock.

Nuala Fennell will be remembered in this House with respect and warmth by colleagues on all sides who knew her as a politician who worked hard, who was tolerant of others and was deeply committed to the betterment of our country. I extend my sympathies and those of my party, to her husband of more than 50 years, Brian, and to the rest of her family, friends and former colleagues. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dilís.

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