Mary White (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)

It is a great pleasure to add my voice to these tributes to a very special man, Justin Keating. He was an idealist and an activist for all of his almost 80 years, which took him through a great variety of careers and interests. He was a distinguished Member of this House and the Seanad. He was a veterinarian, an enthusiastic academic and educator, a talented Minister, a courageous campaigner for many causes, a ground-breaking journalist, a farmer, a cook, an artist and much more besides. It is no surprise at all that he never retired, and many people were astonished to learn that he battled serious illness for much of his adult life.

On behalf of the Green Party, I salute Justin Keating today as an environmentalist who gloried in the natural world and was always very passionate about the need to respect and protect the environment. He saw no contradiction between industrial development or efficient farming and respect for the world around us. He was keen to keep his footprint on this earth as light as possible, yet he enjoyed life to the full, in good company whenever he could find it. Justin Keating championed what was then called the electronic cottage, and was among the first to support the idea of people being able to live in rural places and work from their own homes. In this and many other areas, he was indeed ahead of his time.

I wish to offer my heartfelt sympathy, and that of all members of the Green Party, to Justin Keating's family, relatives and friends, both here and across the globe. Ba phribléid faoi leith dom labhairt anseo inniu i dtaobh Justin Keating. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam cróga dílis.

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