Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have the opportunity to pay tribute to Noel, a great friend and mentor, and by proxy, to pass on the tributes of his very old friend, Ray MacSharry, who directed that campaign back in 1982. He would want me to say Noel Treacy was the finest politician he ever worked with in his political career. They served during Noel's first post as a Minister of State in 1987, when they were in the same Department. While it is not unique that Ministers of State and Ministers get on well together, it is quite rare. I know many people Noel worked with were proud to work with him and impressed by his incredible ability and vision, which have been alluded to by others.

Of course, I was trying to think of any unusual things that happened during our time here. Lightning struck the Government jet once as Noel was approaching Belfast during the peace process. It made the media at the time. He was that kind of unique individual. They say lightning never strikes twice, but it certainly gave us the great Noel Treacy.

Everybody has alluded to his uncanny ability to know the name of everybody in the room; he was singularly the best person I ever saw. On the very rare occasion he did not know somebody in the room, he would question them and within three or four answers, he would have been able to deduce that the person was so-and-so's first cousin's butcher's dog who might have voted Fianna Fáil in the 1967 local elections, such was his ability to trace everybody. He made everybody feel special, no matter whether it was at a cumann meeting at the top of Donegal or the bottom of Cork. People might have met him at the Ard-Fheis for a split second but he would be able to say, "Hello, Mary. How are you? How are John and the children? How did the cattle go this year?" He was phenomenal.

In an era in politics when, sadly, so many of us are blindly consumed with personal advancement, Noel was representative of the honourable profession of politics, where people always come first. He regularly told me, in the ten odd years I was in the Seanad when he was still here, that when he was taking a decision in any Department or in life, he would wonder how it would affect the small farmer, his neighbours and the people in the terraces in Athenry or Ballinasloe. That is missing from these Houses now and it is awful. Noel Treacy epitomised public service and our being here to serve, not to advance.

If he was here, he would know everybody's name. Very special people, including Joan, Emer, Lisa, watching from the south of France, Rory, Marian, John Byrne, and Nóirín are here today. If the roles were swapped, he would want us to talk about baby Jack, who is on his own little tour around the House with Maria, Ciarán, Saoirse, Dáithí and Juliet, because if Noel was here, he would say, "We love the great people of Gurteen", as he often said in every part of Ireland. While colleagues and those in his own constituency have said they aspire to walk in Noel's footsteps - all of us would like to walk, or like to think we can walk, in Noel's footsteps - the truth is nobody will ever fill his shoes. I am sure his colleagues in the constituency will not mind me saying that.

He was a great friend and colleague. The friendship of Ray and my late mother, Elaine, with Mary and Noel, goes back to the beginning. I was trying to think of a sentence that could capture Noel and for me, it is, "Noel Treacy: all graces and no airs".

See this speech in context