Shane Ross (Independent)

That would give this House a role in those partnership talks which have broken down.

I would also like to endorse what everybody said about John McCabe. He deserves his benchmarking. Nobody in this House or in my career in the financial world has given me better financial advice over a long period than John McCabe. The day Eircom was floated, he was the first person to say to me that he was going to sell his shares that day. All of us could have taken advice from him on that. He will be sorely missed. I do not know whether everyone knows there will be a party for him in the main restaurant tomorrow at 5 p.m. I am sure he would like to invite everybody to it.

I would like to endorse all the words of thanks to everybody, which I will not repeat. I would like to say a special word of thanks to Senator White who sent me chocolates during and after the election campaign. I also got some Christmas chocolates from her in the past few weeks. I am grateful to her for them and I hope all other Members of the House will enjoy those chocolates as well in the Christmas period. It is unprecedented in this House to receive such great generosity from our colleagues. While I will not be able to reciprocate that great honour to the Senator, I wish to thank her for it. I hope all Members of Fine Gael have been the beneficiaries of that same generosity.

I would also like to thank Senator MacSharry for sending me a calendar. I will have to face seeing his picture in January, February, March, April, May, June, July and throughout the rest of the year.

I also wish to thank all Members of the House, the Clerk, Assistant Clerk, the Leader of the House, you, a Chathaoirligh, and everybody else for their work during the year.