Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Those of us who live in east Galway know what a very special place it is. It is a place which exhibits the very best of rural Ireland and where community really matters. We do not reminisce about the spirit of the meitheal; we experience and live the meitheal every day of our lives. Noel Treacy embodied that spirit and worked throughout his career to protect and nurture it.

Noel was born in the village of Clough, across the fields from my mother's family. In fact, from speaking recently to my Aunt Breeda, I learned that Noel was a distant relative of mine. His great-grandfather and my great-great-grandfather were brothers. Like many others who entered the profession of politics, Noel did so with the intention of making life better for the people he served. He immediately earned the trust of his people and retained that trust throughout his whole life, to which people have already referred, holding that seat election after election all the way up to his retirement in 2011.

One element of Noel's very large body of policy work that I want to focus on today is that of science and technology. Noel Treacy was a genuine visionary and knew where the future of this country lay long before most others. I have been privileged to work over the past decade with Bernard Kirk of the Camden Education Trust and formerly of the Galway Education Centre. From long conversations with him, I have learned of Noel Treacy's deeply impactful work in the area of science and technology in founding the Galway science and technology festival. He told me that in 1998, Noel assembled 25 people in a room in GMIT and asked, "How many people here think it is a great idea to have a Galway science and technology festival?" As you might expect, nobody put their hand up to disagree. Noel insisted on using the word "technology" in the festival title. Some 25 years later, we now know how prescient his ambitions for Galway and Ireland were.

Ireland has become one of the predominant technological hubs of the planet and we stand on the shoulders of people like Noel Treacy who laid the groundwork for our success. Noel and Bernard went on to organise the incredibly successful European Union Science Olympiad in 2005, again in Galway, welcoming teachers and students from across the whole of Europe. Speaking to a reporter at the event, Noel said, "Bringing all of us together gives a clear message that Ireland is Europe, Europe is Ireland. Our futures are intertwined". How right he was.

Incidentally, Bernard had a particularly interesting recollection about organising a tour for the people who were attending that Olympiad. Noel said that Connemara was nice but asked if they could not bring people to Portumna and then to Ballinasloe, the Turoe stone in Bullaun and the wonderful medieval town of Athenry. We can all guess which direction the buses headed on that day. No matter where Noel found himself in the world, ably representing us wherever he went, he always found his way home to his beloved Gurteen, and there he rests today.

To all of those who had the good fortune to meet and be at the end of that heartfelt handshake, he leaves many memories. To many people in this building, he was Minister Noel Treacy, winner of elections and trusted friend. I am sure that when he returned to Gurteen he became an even more special person. Noel, the soulmate, the giver of love, the giver of security, dad and grandad. To Mary and her precious family, can I express my deepest sympathy to you on your loss and maybe offer some words of comfort from Kahlil Gibran. These are words I often resort to when I think of my own dad, who has also passed:

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you will see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

May Noel rest in peace and may his memory remain in our work here and in the hearts of those who were fortunate to encounter him during a life well lived.

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