John Ellis (Fianna Fail)

I would like to be associated with the expressions of sympathy to Ann and her family. I have the unique distinction of the membership of this House as being the one who came into this House on the same day as Séamus Brennan 31 years ago in 1977. We all came in here full of joy and full of hope, a young new group of people. However, many of us had come here only because of the previous four years' work of the late Séamus Brennan. He totally modernised the Fianna Fáil Party, from approximately 1974 until the 1977 election. He took us all, root and branch, and remodernised the party. His work is still to be seen in how politics have moved on in this country.

He will be remembered also as being the ultimate politician. Everything was possible if one went about it the right way. That was the approach that Séamus Brennan took, first, as general secretary of the Fianna Fáil Party, then as a politician here in the Seanad, and when he moved to the Dáil in 1981 and into the various ministries.

As a Minister, if one approached him with a problem, it was not a matter of what he could not do for you but that he would see what could be done for you. That epitomised Séamus as well, I believe, with his constituents who found his approach to be that if he could, he would and if it was possible, it would be done. That is what politics is all about. Politics is the art of the possible. We can talk about matters impossible and we can talk about the dreams, and everyone who comes into politics has a dream.

Séamus's biggest contribution, as far as the Oireachtas is concerned, is the way he served in all the ministries in which he had the honour to serve. He left a mark everywhere he went. It did not matter whether he was a long or a short period in that ministry, he took action that remains to this day.

To his wife Ann and to his family, it is a tragic loss that somebody should be taken away at the age of 60. I suppose it is the way of the Lord. We do not have any say. We live for today and we hope that we see tomorrow. I want to be associated with the expressions of sympathy to Séamus's wife Ann and to her family, and to his close colleagues, Frank and Mary, whom I have known for practically as long as being Séamus's back-up team. Everybody, right across this House and this country, was saddened by the untimely passing of a true and loyal Irishman.