Dan Boyle (Green Party)

I first became aware of Peter Callanan as a long-standing member of Cork County Council, many years before I became involved in public life, when I used to read his name and see his photograph in what was then known as the Cork Examiner. When I was subsequently elected to Cork City Council, there would have been joint meetings of the city and county council. While Peter Callanan represented and celebrated much of what was rural life and sought to retain that, Innishannon itself is only 14 miles outside of Cork city. He protected a rural community with a fast burgeoning suburban area on its doorstep.

It was an area in which we had a strong common cause. He was a man with an independent mind and he was particularly concerned about a proposal for hundreds of houses to be built in his local area, something that never came to pass. While the temptation is to go along with a proposal for houses that leads to development and jobs, he had a sense that this proposal would irreversibly change the character of the area and the community in which he lived. He also had a good sense of its geography, as the proposed development was in a flood plain. Given the subsequent incidents of flooding along the River Bandon, which also flows through Innishannon, he seemed to have a better sense of that than many people with degrees in engineering, planning or public administration.

He believed in who he was, where he lived, what he acquired and a sense of courage and confidence that comes from living such a life. To have done so with such good humour meant that he was well thought of by those who interacted with him in public life, be they members of all political parties or members of the public with whom he had such great affinity. It is only right and fitting that we in this House should mark that career, especially in its latter stages when he was re-elected twice at an age when many of us are often considering whether we should still be involved in public life. That he continued to be a Member of this House with such verve, enthusiasm and pride exemplified a quality of public life to which many of us should aspire. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.