Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I speak on behalf of Members on the Independent benches who wish to be associated with all that has been said in tribute to the late Joe Doyle with whom I served in the Seanad. He was a Member of the other House for a brief period from 1987 and left the Seanad in 2002. At all times I found him to be a generous, open and humorous man. He was a great man to make a cutting comment out of the side of his mouth because he was never quite sure about what Independent Members should do, whether they should join a party or go about their business and leave matters to real politicians. He had extraordinary passion, of which I am sure his family are aware. The best politicians are the ones with conviction and passion, whatever the issues of the day. He had that passion for his area and the city. I recall a time when the Dodder flooded and he was so upset at the damage caused by the flooding to people's property in the area in which he lived. He was their representative; he was part of and suffered with them. He was a gorgeous man in that regard. He was a man of conviction and devoted to his church. As mentioned, Lourdes was always on the agenda; it was his other home, as he was always trotting over and back, but his real commitment was to his people.

Joe raised health issues and, in particular, awareness of epilepsy, a condition which used to be hidden. A lot has happened since in that regard. While Joe was a Member of the Oireachtas the issue was dealt with in a much more open way and received public recognition. He deserves credit for being part of that movement.

Joe was honest, diligent, humorous and gentle. He said many times in the House that he had been a Deputy, a Senator and a member of the city council but that the pinnacle of his political career was being elected Lord Mayor of his city. That is important in this day and age when local politics is often demeaned. He carried that sense of being a true democrat, a true representative.

I echo the sentiments expressed by Senator Fitzgerald and share in what will be said by other speakers. We thank his family for being supportive of him and enabling him take on the very important role in politics of representing the people of his area. Without that commitment, without people like him, politics would die a death and be all the poorer. At the time of his death one of the local priests commented that he had had no enemies. It struck me that this was a beautiful, personable and attractive epitaph for anybody to be given and that it had been truly well earned.

Joe's dark side was mentioned by Senator Fitzgerald - he was a horse racing enthusiast. He was a member of the syndicate which owned the highly successful Arctic Copper. As soon as he saw that the horse had run its race, he walked away from the syndicate and said, "You can have the rest of it, lads." I think they had no luck after that.

This is a day on which we thank Joe's family for sharing a lovely man with us. He was a man of conviction and passionate about his work, politics and party. We say goodbye him today. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam. Duine den scoth. I echo the words of Senator Fitzgerald: he was a true blue, with Fine Gael blood flowing through his veins and he never moved from that side. He is man of whom his family can be proud. It was a privilege for us to have known and worked with him.