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

I was a sucker for Gay Byrne's broadcasting skills. Every Christmas, his radio show would go to someone's kitchen. "Trick" would be the wrong word to use about it. Mrs Murphy would be asked where her son was and say, "He is in Australia, God bless him. I miss him." Before we knew it, Paddy the son would walk through the door and we would be crying having had our heart strings pulled so brilliantly. I still use Gay-Byrneisms and find my kids looking at me when I say "Ye wha', Gay?", which is an example of his use of language with which we grew up.

It is very appropriate to remember him here but we should remember that when he was appointed by RTÉ, the then controller of programmes, Gunnar Rugheimer, played a key part in determining the role of the public service broadcaster in a nation. Politicians at the time were not happy with this current affairs programme and the appointment of Gay Byrne, which they feared would upstage politicians somewhat. That was probably true for several decades. Our society and democracy benefited from that more open and public debate. As such, Gay Byrne played a significant role in the development of our democracy. He will be missed terribly. It is important to reflect at this time on whether we are valuing our public service broadcasting when we are selling the tapestries RTÉ commissioned at that earlier time. We will miss Gay Byrne. We must bring back that sense of the importance of public service broadcasting, which is an important aspect of our democracy. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

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