Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I too would like to welcome the Aylward family and to extend my sympathies and the sympathies of the Social Democrats to Helena, his wife; his daughter Triona; his sons, Bob and Mark; and their extended family. I was aware that Bobby had grandchildren and that tells you something. Like Deputy McDonald, I served on the Committee of Public Accounts with Bobby. When you were in the Dáil with him you were acutely aware of where he was from. He was most definitely from Kilkenny and I knew that well.

I was sad to hear of his passing earlier this year and I had not realised that he had been so ill. His biggest personal attribute was his likeability, which takes you a long way. By-elections are different and there was some surprise that he was elected in the 2015 by-election. His likeability explains a lot of that, as well as hard work. As someone who won a by-election, I know they can be different and that tells you something about Bobby.

As I said, we were on the Committee of Public Accounts together and there are different ways of approaching things in that committee. You can be combative and probing or you can be chatty. I remember when Bord na gCon was before the committee, he was particularly effective in that he just chatted to them and got some replies we were a bit surprised about. None of the rest of us were capable of doing that on that day and that stands out for me as a particular way of doing things. It shows that you need variety in the Dáil and you need people who do things differently because we all bring something different. Bobby will be remembered and again I express my sincere sympathy.

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