Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge Noel's family who are here with us. We have Mary, Joan, Emer, Lisa and Rory, along with his most wonderful grandchildren and his sisters Marian and Nóirín. Like Deputy Canney, I am going to take a bit of a different tack. I am in politics because of Noel Treacy. He was the man who came into a house in Abbeyknockmoy and opened his book and said, "If you are really interested in politics, Ms Rabbitte, I will help you". At that stage, Noel had stepped away from the party but he was deeply involved in our local elections. That was his sense of community, in respect of ensuring that we as a party would continue. He wanted to see the diversity of inclusion of female members in the party and he was there to assist me at the very beginning of my career. For that, I am very grateful. I would say that sometimes I give awful trouble to the boss, but he must realise it was Noel Treacy who paved the road to allow me to be here.

I mentioned Noel's passion for his community, the people of Ballymacward and his local club, and his setting up a St. Kerrill's football club. I refer as well to his work for the county and what he did from 2011 to 2016. He went back to his people to ensure the development of Galway County Board and of hurling, football and everything else. As a young child growing up, I would have known very little about politics, other than we had a most wonderful castle in Portumna. Noel was then the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, OPW. At that stage, our castle in Portumna was in a very neglected state until he got involved and sourced funding for us. He put the castle in Portumna on the map. Every time this is spoken about, it is recalled that the funding was received because of Noel's involvement.

I remember when my father laid the chimneys on the castle. We talked about how that came about and it was Treacy who got the money. There was always such a great sense of celebration that Noel had taken such an interest in Portumna, which is quite a distance from the Ballymacward side of things. He had, though, put us on the map. From that day to this, we have flourished. He put Portumna and the castle on the map. He gave us a destination and a centre to be very proud of. This is to speak about only our little patch, but this is what he did right across east Galway. It was not just east Galway, though, that he helped. He went wherever it was the right thing to do. This is what the Tánaiste spoke about in his speech.

It was the right thing to do. We talk about science and innovation. Galway has expanded in the med tech sector because of that belief and investment at the very beginning. As I see it, Noel Treacy was a political giant with an equal generosity of spirit and dedication for the people of Galway. For that I am very grateful to be here as a Galway East Deputy following in his footsteps. I will never surpass them. If I can achieve even a piece of the work he did and bring about some of the results with the commitment and dedication of the contract the Ceann Comhairle talked about, I will be a happy representative. Thank you, Mary, for being here today.

See this speech in context