Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I join with others in paying tribute to the late Paddy Power.

Paddy was more my sparring partner than my friend in politics in local Kildare. Indeed, I knew him best at local government level, where Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl used sit beside him. Paddy was a little hard of hearing, even at that time, and I would interrupt him while he was speaking. He would be saying, "What did he say? What did he say?", and Seán would say, "Don't mind him. Don't mind him." Eventually, I would get him going. I got his dander up on many an occasion.

Paddy made a very positive contribution, particularly right across local government - that is where I knew him - in Kildare and in the VEC, of which he was chairman for many years. He developed a VEC scheme in Kildare that is second to none in the country. He was one of the drivers of that.

Probably, we both mellowed in our relationship as the years went on. I remember that when I was a junior Minister in the government with Fianna Fáil and I was at a local authority meeting talking to councillors about housing, he said at that public meeting that I had greatly improved since I had become associated with Fianna Fáil.

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