Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

I shared the constituency of Dublin South-East with Joe for many years and was on the city council for a period of time with him. My memory of him, reinforced by the comments that have already been made here this morning, is of an immensely happy, cheerful man. He could not have been like that all of the time - none of us could be - but he was far more happy for most of us than we ourselves were much of the time. He had what Deputy Eamon Ryan referred to as this strange sense of humour. I remember that when he told me inside in the Members' Bar that the reason he did not drive was because he had epilepsy it was a revelation to me, and I asked him how did he survive. He survived the way Deputy Kenny described, and could not have survived at all without Peggy - Joe was the first to say it.

At a time when politicians have been given a bad name by the misbehaviour of a minority, Joe is a model of the kind of person that we would like to see come into politics. Many people from all sides of this House, including the Minister of State, Deputy Pat Carey, who served on Dublin City Council with Joe would agree that one knew where Joe stood on most matters and one also knew when Joe was ready to do business. That business was honoured and was never reneged upon. One could trust it. One could trust it in the council of City Hall and one could trust it here. This will, I hope, resonate with everybody in this House. We all share constituencies with other colleagues, some of whom we can work with. Some make us nervous. Joe never made me nervous. Joe never made any of us in the Labour Party nervous. We knew exactly where we were with him, and he with us.

In particular, Councillor Dermot Lacey, who wrote a wonderful piece in our local newspaper, News 4, reinforced the comment made by Deputy Ryan about Joe's great moment when he was Lord Mayor and when this city, perhaps for the first time in a generation if not even longer, suddenly experienced an influx of newcomers, as they are called, new people who sought refuge in the city for whatever reason. There was a resentment, a reaction, a fear, but Joe was not afraid. Instead, as Lord Mayor, he went to the trouble of ensuring that Dublin City Council would issue information leaflets in the languages of the newcomers so that they would not be lost or become strangers in this city. We know that newcomers at different generations have provided great wealth and encouragement to this nation, and Joe saw that. His Christian faith and his Christian Democratic credentials, to which Deputy Creighton referred, informed that kind of action and he reached out to the newcomers as the first citizen of this city. It is a tribute to him, and it is the epitome of the kind of man he was.

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