Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)

We are so conscious today of restraints, budgetary requirements, cuts and so on that I know people are questioning if the office of the President is cost effective, of any use, whether it makes a difference and should we be considering its abolition. A viciousness was brought into the recent campaigns for the presidency with which we could have very much done without. We do not need that kind of thing to uncover the truth. On the question of whether the presidency makes a difference, going back to our first President, Douglas Hyde, we can say that each of our presidents, in his or her own different way, has made a major contribution to Irish society.

President McAleese and her family and their residency, Áras an Uachtaráin, are in the constituency of Dublin Central which I represent, so there is an added poignancy to today. We also very much appreciated the fact that she took time to come to the removal of the late Tony Gregory two years ago.

I read the article by the northern editor in yesterday's edition of The Irish Times in which he looked at her role in terms of the North and reminded us of the abusive comments she had to put up with in the beginning of her term as President and yet by the time she was finishing her term of office she had won so much respect from so many Unionists in the North, and that is a considerable achievement. The one quality that is very obvious is her perseverance and that she did not give up no matter what was being thrown at her.

She understood the complexity of the North because she came from there. She spoke this morning at an event for the homeless about how she knew what it was like to be homeless. I look at her as a bridge builder and as a person with a great sense of humanity. In that article yesterday, which is wonderful and worth quoting, the northern editor wrote that she felt it was important to say the gentle word and the healing word instead of the bitter world. That sort of legacy is wonderful.

I was at an event this morning with marginalised people launching a drugs programme in the north inner city and I listened to the President on radio. She was talking about where she was, which was at a shelter for homeless men. That, to me, is what she is all about.

I am also struck by the difference between a President like her and royalty. Looking at pictures of her at the time of the Omagh bombing and at other events, she was able to go out and put her arms around people, shake their hands and she had that common, human touch that so many royalty do not have.

She made mistakes and that is wonderful. She made comments and did things that people did not like and that also showed her humanity. To use an inversion of the phrase "behind every great man there is a great woman", in her case, behind this great woman there was a great man.

I finish with words that were used here on another occasion long before my time by a person who said he had done the State some service. President McAleese has done the State some service.

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