Rory Kiely (Fianna Fail)

I also want to be associated with the tributes to the late former Members of this House, John M. Mannion and Pat Codd. I knew both of them. When I entered the House in 1977, Senator Mannion had already been a Member for the two previous terms. On that occasion, 1977, he was elected to the Dáil. We stayed in the same hotel and a friendship developed between us. Since he left parliamentary politics I had occasion to meet him nearly every year at the Listowel races, where he stayed with his long-time friend, the former Deputy and Senator, Gerard Lynch. I attended his funeral and was pleased to do so. I always found John Mannion to be a gentleman who never let politics come between him and friendship.

I also knew Pat Codd after he had left the Seanad. He was elected in 1975 in a by-election. There were five Seanad by-elections the same day. Fine Gael won three and the Labour Party won two. Pat Codd, who stood on the agricultural panel, won the seat by 20 votes from another Fine Gael candidate on that occasion, Joe Lennon, from Louth. Subsequently, when I was campaigning for the Seanad and when Pat Codd had a vote——