Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I welcome the family of the late Joe Doyle, his wife Peggy, his children, David, Michael and Róisín, and extended members of their family to the Distinguished Visitors Gallery. This is always the conclusion to parliamentary careers. It is a nice gesture for the Houses of the Oireachtas to pay a final tribute to those who were elected by their respective constituencies and served here. For every Member here now, some day or other the flag outside will fly at half-mast and someone will stand up to pay tribute to the work they did.

It is not always easy to give a picture of the personality of the late Joe Doyle to Members who did not serve with him. Of the many masses I have attended, however, Joe Doyle's funeral mass at Donnybrook was one at which there was a genuine feeling of warmth and an environment of absolute peace. There was also a sense of celebration in many ways. Why would not that be so since Joe Doyle was a sacristan there for 28 years. It was as if the entire place welcomed him back to send him on his final journey.

For those who did not know Joe Doyle, he was a deeply committed Christian. He was a man of the people who exuded the primary function of public service, that of interest in his constituents. Wherever Joe was met by people, he always showed his absolute commitment to the people who elected him.

Joe Doyle was elected to Dublin City Council in 1979 and continued there until 2004. He was elected as Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1998 with the help of Fianna Fáil council members. It was his honour to confer the freedom of the city on Gay Byrne.

He was elected to the Dáil in 1982 on his third attempt with Garret FitzGerald as his running mate in the Dublin South East constituency, serving two terms. I recall the controversial days in the Fine Gael parliamentary party, and the country in general, when the question of a referendum on abortion was being decided. Joe Doyle had a real, strong crisis of conscience about his interpretation of the wording of the referendum to be put to the people. At that time he was one of eight party members who voted on a conscientious decision against the wording with the result that the alternative wording was passed by a slim majority in 1983. Joe Doyle always made the point that his decision on that issue was one for him to decide with his conscience and that he did.

He took an interest in the horse-racing syndicate in the House, being a fully participating member. In his younger years he had an interest in the greyhound industry. Due to his epilepsy, he never drove and walked around his constituency, a good idea of which the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, would approve. He either travelled by bus or by train and Peggy often drove him around the country on the wild adventures they had on his successful Seanad campaigns.

In that sense, he was a quintessential Dub. Born and bred very close to Donnybrook, he went to school in Milltown and later in Westland Row. He served 28 years as a sacristan in his local church. In many ways, he was an absolute contradiction to his running mate, Dr. Garret FitzGerald. Joe Doyle's observations on the high movements of the then Taoiseach were personal and unusual at times. He had his own way of putting his view across. It was a pleasure to know him and to have served with him in the House.

He hated unparliamentary language. For people who told stories in which unparliamentary language might have been part, he would either recall them in horror or mock horror. As leader of my party, I feel his loss is not just to politics but as a role model, the epitome of public service to one's constituents. Joe Doyle knew all his constituency's streets and laneways and his constituents by their first names, always there to greet them on so many occasions.

It is not easy to paint a picture for people who did not know Joe Doyle. When I listened to his son, David, speak about his father, he put it in a way that no one else could. He said his father was an extraordinary man of deep faith and conviction, which he was, and had poured out his faith through his actions, which he did. Joe had an absolute devotion to Lourdes. He actually proposed to Peggy when he was there once, a story he was always willing to tell. I listened to David's final words about his father, which I would like to quote as they epitomise the Joe Doyle I knew who served on Dublin City Council, in the Dáil on two occasions and in the Seanad on two occasions, a deeply Christian man devoted to his constituents. David Doyle put it this way, "Dad, a Dublin man, a Donnybrook man, a church man, a Lourdes man, a Fine Gael man, a true Christian gentleman, my best friend, my father". He is a loss to his wife and family, to politics, to the people of the constituency and to Dublin, but he set a standard that others can follow in the knowledge that that kind of representation is the true epitome of what public service really is.

Tá áthas orm gur chas mé air agus tá súil agam gur thuas sna flaithis atá sé. Tá seans i bhfad níos fearr aige nó mar atá ag duine ar bith eile mar bhí cúram aige ar an eaglais i nDomhnach Broc le níos mó ná 30 bliain. Má tá seans ag duine ar bith a bheith thuas leis an bhfear sna flaithis, sílim go bhfuil Joe ann.

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