Shane Ross (Independent)

I support the sentiments expressed by Senators O'Rourke and Brian Hayes. I did not know Lady Goulding well and did not serve with her in this House. She was a family friend so I knew her when I was younger. She was a unique person. As Senators O'Rourke and Brian Hayes said, she was a British aristocrat who came here and embraced the country with open arms. Instead of apologising for her background, which many in her situation did at the time, she took up the cudgel in the most effective way she could.

It may have been an accident that she became a politician. She took up the cause of the handicapped and used her position to do good for other people. That is somewhat unique these days among the privileged. One of her great talents was her ability to lobby on behalf of the Central Remedial Clinic. She managed to lobby politicians effectively in that regard. Nominated to this House by Jack Lynch in 1977, she was a precursor of a type of nominee of great and independent mind and she used her position ruthlessly for the causes in which she believed. It was to her credit that she managed to straddle the divide between Jack Lynch's time as Taoiseach and Charles J. Haughey's time as Taoiseach. In spite of their differences, she was re-nominated and approved by both leaders of Fianna Fáil because they saw great merit in what she was doing, which is a great tribute to her.