Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Green Party, I wish to very briefly add our words of sympathy for the family of Peter Barry. It should be remembered that what is important in politics is a certain amount of decency, which Mr. Barry epitomised. I never worked with him, but my colleagues, former Deputies John Gormley and Trevor Sargent, told me they had the highest regard for him through their dealings with him because he was a decent man and brought to politics a certain decency, a little more of which, perhaps, we could do with today.

I have a parting "Thank-you" for him. He rescued our Senator, Grace O'Sullivan, from a French naval frigate once. She had been arrested while protesting at an atoll in the South Pacific. In the fashion of Irish politicians, it was the Foreign Minister at the time, Peter Barry, who went to work representing all the people of Ireland in helping to release her. We must thank him for that but, more widely, we must thank him for his contribution to the peace process and for the civility and general decency he brought to the Irish political world.

See this speech in context