Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)

My Seanad colleagues spoke on the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission and its role, and I do not intend to go over that ground. I intend to speak of the individual who will take over that office, Mr. Dermot Gallagher — Dag, as he was known in the Department — and his continuing career of service to the country. Many people have been involved in the Irish peace process but very few could claim to be there from beginning to end. Whereas many would have observed history, Dermot Gallagher lived the history and was there for much of it.

He saw Frank Aiken as Minister for External Affairs all the way through to Deputy Brian Cowen's role in the Good Friday Agreement. He dealt with Charlie Haughey and various other taoisigh, including Garret FitzGerald. Going back to his roots in Leitrim, his first love, outside of the affairs of the country, is football in the county. He still hopes that some day the boundary commission will reunite Leitrim, the partitioned county, as Mr. Gallagher often referred to it.

I had the great pleasure of spending some time with Mr. Gallagher in Washington DC, and he is a public servant in the true sense of the word, in every way. He played minor and under-21 football for Leitrim so if anybody wishes to have a discussion with Dermot Gallagher one should talk about Leitrim football rather than foreign affairs. Generally, if one comes from Kerry there will be a short conversation about Leitrim football, but he seems to be able to talk about it in minute detail.

Mr. Gallagher developed significant knowledge of foreign affairs through Professor Desmond Williams in UCD before the hand of history touched upon him. He was duty officer when Paddy Devlin, among others, came looking for guns to the Department of Foreign Affairs on the weekend when Catholics were being burned out of their homes. Dermot Gallagher was the man who opened the door on that occasion. Patrick Hillery, among others, was a member of the Government in charge and it was clearly a significant and seminal moment in Irish history in 1969.

He went on to a post in San Francisco and ended up in Nigeria at one stage, where he founded a great relationship with the Irish missionaries who taught him much about the importance of public service and what really matters in life. He was involved in the Anglo-Irish Agreement and the Stormont and Sunningdale agreements. When Charlie Haughey came to power, although the Taoiseach had been vehemently against the agreement in opposition, Dermot Gallagher was told by him to "fully and imaginatively" enforce the agreement as agreed by the previous Government.

He has a great knack for friendship and a great ability to get on with everybody. While ambassador in Washington DC he struck up a relationship which was to have a significant consequence for Ireland. His friendship with Bill Clinton, then governor of Arkansas, meant that when Clinton was in the White House and when the British Government was arguing that Gerry Adams should not get a visa, which became symbolically important for the republican community in Northern Ireland, Dermot Gallagher could have, as he often said, a quiet and effective word in Bill Clinton's ear. Where normally Ireland would hold no sway with the Secretary of State and the Department of State, Bill Clinton overruled his officials and insisted that the visa be granted. As a result of a very brave step that was ridiculed by many in this House and the media in this country, Gerry Adams was granted a visa and the peace process started to take root because republicans believed they would get a fair deal. Before that, the Americans were seen to be more on the side of the British Government.

When he came back from America in 1997, he was put in charge of the section in the Taoiseach's Department tasked with the Good Friday Agreement and was there for all of it, until its conclusion over ten years ago. He since retired from public service, but not for long.

I wanted to put on the record of this House his service to this country. He was there when guns were being sought by the Catholic community to protect themselves and he was there when the gun was taken from Irish politics. It is a significant service to any state and one which should be on the record of this House.