Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I join the Taoiseach and every other Member in extending sympathy to the family and friends of the late Monica Barnes and to her colleagues in Fine Gael. She was one of the political women I used to look at as a child with some considerable admiration. The Taoiseach will forgive me for saying the following, which I want to put in the right way. She did not really come across like a Fine Gaeler, at least not to me. I mean that as the highest compliment to her, not that some of the Members opposite are not also lovely. She was a committed feminist in every respect, a woman's woman and a courageous voice. Is it not something that just weeks before we go to the polls hoping to remove the eighth amendment, we recall that she was one of very few who stood against it when it was first proposed? She was one of the few who had the foresight, compassion and vision for women to take a very courageous stance at the time.

I never met Monica Barnes and I am sorry that I did not know her. She represents a huge loss to her family. She had a considerable political career at a time when women were even rarer than we are now in the places of legislation and decision-making. Ireland and the world more generally are better for having had her and I am sure her family and friends are bereft at her loss. I am happy on my behalf and on behalf of Sinn Féin to pay our respects to her memory and to offer our condolences on the death of a very great woman.

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