Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There will be brief expressions of sympathy by group leaders - the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the leaders of Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and the Technical Group - and the Budget Statements will then be taken. Other Members who wish to express sympathy will be given an opportunity to do so at a future date.

I know I can speak for everyone in the House when I express deep shock and sadness at the deaths over the weekend in separate but equally tragic events of ten family members at Carrickmines, County Dublin and the murder of a member of An Garda Síochána in Omeath, County Louth. Thomas and Sylvia Connors and their children, Jim, Christy and baby Mary; Willie Lynch and Tara Gilbert and their daughters, Kelsey and Jodie; Jimmy Lynch, a brother of Willie; and Garda Tony Golden: to us they have become the names of the dead but for those who knew them, loved them and mourn them, they are still the possessors of a life lived and unlived, of hopes and dreams, with all of their joys and sorrows, innocence and expectations, the birthdays uncelebrated, the children unborn, all the milestones in what we call life that will now never be reached.

On Sunday I visited the scene of the inferno at Carrickmines, the location where so many adults and children had lost their lives to corrosive smoke and intense heat, and it will remain with me forever. The silence and sadness of the people in attendance demonstrated their solidarity with the families and the children as Garda technical personnel went about their work amidst the carnage evident on the site.

To the Lynch and Connors families and to their extended families, I extend our prayers and our deepest sympathies on their tragic loss. My thoughts are also with the two children now so sadly orphaned and who are still in hospital under treatment for their injuries.

Just as Irish people felt a justified pride at our international achievements abroad, once more our country held its breath as news of another garda murdered in the line of duty became known. Garda Tony Golden from Culleens outside Ballina, a community garda with a passion for public service, was cruelly taken from this life while carrying out his public duty. That passion and idea of public duty will forever counter the capacity for casual destruction that he met on Sunday. Tony Golden was a proud member of Na Stiofánaigh, the Ballina Stephenites, and he lived their rallying cry of "Forward to the goal of victory." He will be so sadly missed by his beloved family and especially by Nicola and their three beautiful children, to whom we extend our deepest and heartfelt sympathy, as we do to his heartbroken colleagues, the Garda Commissioner and the community with whom he served so generously. His conduct and his spirit remind me of the words of the poet who penned the following lines just across the water from Ballina:

And pluck till time and times are done

The silver apples of the moon,

The golden apples of the sun.

I hope too that young Siobhan Phillips makes a recovery from her injuries in hospital.

For both the Golden family and the extended Connors and Lynch families, it will be very difficult and might now seem impossible for those who remain behind to find their co-ordinates of sense and survival in the dark weeks, months and time ahead as we approach Christmas and beyond. Their lives, within those precious short lives, will forever be cherished by those they leave behind. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anam dílis. The Tricolour, symbol of our country, will fly at half mast on all public buildings on the occasion of the funerals.

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