Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

I join other speakers in extending my sympathy to Mrs. Callanan and the family. I had the pleasure of knowing the late Peter Callanan before I became a Member of this House. He was a very genuine, sincere and caring man who was full of humour and very fair. He had the great ability to put things very succinctly. There was many a day when I was giving the Government side a hard time and he would call me at the corner going out of the door and say: "Don't go too far the next day or you mightn't be here the day after; you might be suspended." There was many a cup of tea I had with him when he calmed me down on occasions when I got a little excited. He was very proud of his family and the role they played in his life. He was very proud of the involvement of his sons and daughter in Valley Rovers in playing hurling and camogie.

One of his lasting legacies to me was to convert me to buying a different model in car. We had the distinction of driving the same make of car, a Renault. On one of the last times I talked to him he said: "Would you ever change to the Laguna because you'll be killed some day, the way you drive." I will always be indebted to him for this. He was a man who had great faith. As someone who had been in a seminary, he could never understand how I had ever been ordained, given my performances here. He always left me with a great sense of religion. In one of my last discussions with him he said: "If we haven't got faith and we haven't got prayer, we've nothing."

I express my deepest sympathies to the Callanan family. Peter had a great smile. He was a rogue, but a nice one and a good Cork man.