Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Is trua nach raibh aon cheangal pearsanta idir mé féin agus Lady Valerie Goulding riamh. However, despite not meeting her as she had left the House before I joined and despite the fact that I lived in Cork, I, like half the country, felt I knew her, which is a commentary on the woman's calibre. She represented a progressive voice in terms of how our country would be built for people who at the time were virtually invisible. She did so at a time when there were great difficulties in politics as we faced a serious economic crisis, yet she was one of those who sustained in the public mind the view that those on the margins were important and deserved a service, whether Ireland was rich or poor.

For people such as myself, who were looking on from a distance, she gave great evidence of the capacity of one person with conviction to make a difference. It is a lesson worth repeating that in a free society such as ours, a person of conviction similar to Lady Valerie Goulding can make a difference and leave a legacy in the form of the services she initiated from which so many people in Ireland benefited. On behalf of the Labour Party I would like to be associated with the expressions of sympathy to her family.