Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

This is unusual. I join with the Tánaiste and other Members in wishing the two gentlemen who are retiring every good fortune in the times ahead. Liam Lynch has been a regular receiver of people at Leinster House 2000 for the past number of years. He is a craftsman in terms of his wielding of the knife in the butcher business and could teach many of us lessons in regard to cuts. This is his last day and Shay retires tomorrow.

I have known Shay Byrne since I entered the House. He arrived from an institution on Mount Street a short time before that and he had an interest in the well-being of a former Taoiseach. Shay Byrne was one of the first technocrats or technologists when he arrived in Leinster House because in the corridor outside there was an old battered photocopier and when the State rose to being economically solvent, a new photocopier was purchased and he was the first person in the Houses of the Oireachtas to be able to photocopy on two sides of the one page. There were Members who were into recycling and efficiency long before others who said, "There is a man down there and he can photocopy on two sides of the one page". That was fine until a predecessor of the Ceann Comhairle's issued an order limiting the number of photocopies any person could make. Shortly after he left that exalted seat, he sent an order down to the same Shay Byrne for a huge number of photocopies and Mr. Byrne had to say to him, "Unfortunately, you handed down an edict and I cannot give you any more".

Shay was an observer of business through all the other Head Ushers over the years such as Peadar Lawless. His greatest achievement was not just in serving the Members of all parties and none but the way he conducted himself with decorum, dignity and treated every person who came through the gates with respect. That is an outstanding hallmark for those who follow him, given his attitude and his exemplary work. When he looks back on his time, the highlight will not be the 40 years of back slapping, craw thumping, whingeing and moaning and roaring and shouting that goes on in the House and its environs but the sublime skill he displayed at Old Trafford, the hallowed ground of Manchester United, when he wore the No. 7 shirt and demonstrated that Shay Byrne, Head Usher of the Houses of the Oireachtas, could play in any exalted company and did. Good luck to him and his wife and family.

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