Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I, too, would like to pay tribute to my former friend and colleague, Nuala Fennell. Although I did not share time with her in the Dáil as she had retired before I was elected here, when I joined the Fine Gael Party in Dublin South she was very much a prominent national Deputy for that constituency and very much a role model for me entering politics, as she was for many women at that time. My main memory of Nuala from those days was of her personal kindness to me as somebody new coming into politics. She offered advice on all manner of issues both personal and political. Some of the advice I still treasure and observe such as the best type of high heels to wear when canvassing. It has come in very useful.

As I got to know Nuala better over the years, I realised there were no sides to her, what one saw was what one got. Deputy Kenny described her as courageous, and she certainly was that, but she was also a warm, open, kind person who embraced her friends and her colleagues and anybody who had a problem. Their problems, issues and concerns became hers because that was the kind of person she was. She cared about people and campaigned on their behalf. Those two qualities are the hallmark of a really good politician, although I believe Nuala never saw herself as a politician or considered herself to be political. She was a trailblazer on behalf of people, particularly on behalf of women, and God knows women needed somebody to blaze a trail for them in those days.

When I speak of that time to my daughter, which is not so very long ago, she can scarcely believe the regime that existed then for women in the home, the workplace and in society generally. The freedoms and opportunities that are now available to my daughter and to her generation are in no short measure due to the ground-breaking work and campaigning of a small group of women, for whom Nuala at that time was their political icon. One of the sadnesses for Nuala was that those freedoms and opportunities that now exist for women in society generally did not increase the gender equality in this House. She thought, I believe, to the very end that there were far too many suits in here. I am afraid I have to agree with her, as I am sure will many of my women colleagues.

Nevertheless, Nuala smoothed my path into this House. I can tell her family, which may be of some consolidation to them now, of the huge fondness that still remains for her in Dublin South. Whenever I canvass door to door or talk to people, it is great and encouraging to witness the number of people, primarily women, who mention Nuala, who remember some personal kindness or contact they had with her, but mostly they just want to bear witness to the work that she did for women and to record their appreciation of her legacy to all of our daughters.

Nuala had many friends and at her funeral we saw the thousands of people from all walks of life who came and who will mourn her and miss her, but nobody will do so more than her family. In every undertaking, at every meeting and in all her endeavours, both personal and political, as long as I knew her, Nuala was blessed to have her beloved Brian at her side, and she was not afraid to acknowledge that publicly again and again that she knew she was blessed. As a couple, the term "the other half" had real meaning. In every sense they complimented one another. He was her other half and she was his. I know that her sudden death - it was sudden in the end - leaves him heart-broken. I know too that their children, Garrett, Jackie and Amanda, of whom she was so proud, take great consolidation from the fact that Nuala's life was lived to the full right to the very end and that they were so much at the centre of that life, both public and private. Nuala took great delight and pride quietly from the fact that her interest in public life was passed on to her children. She will be missed and I wish to extend my sympathy to her family and extended family. I know that Nuala will rest in peace.

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