Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

As Senator O'Donovan said, Senator Phelan and I never had an ill word. There might have been some poaching of votes from time to time. It is not widely known that Kieran used to tell me who he knew was not voting for him, so I knew where to fish.

Like Senator Wilson and others, I first met the Phelan family through the meat business. I knew Laurence and Paschal Phelan many years ago, but it was not until I met Kieran Phelan that I realised what nice guys they were. That says a little about Kieran. He was a fantastic man and a smashing friend. We were on the same electoral panel and, as Senator O'Donovan said, it is unlikely that one would be friends with another Senator from the same panel. With Senator Wilson, the former Senator Brennan, who is in the Gallery, Deputy Scanlon, who was then a Senator, and Senator O'Brien, during six or eight months in 2002 we did a tour of accommodation in Dublin. We were in every establishment from Phibsborough to the city centre and elsewhere until we found our ultimate home in the Grand Canal Hotel. Through many evenings and many chats over the guts of eight years, the contribution Kieran Phelan made to my life was immense.

As Senator Wilson said, he took tremendous pride in the successes of his children and family whom he loved dearly. He also took pride in the achievements and success - material and otherwise -of his siblings. He had no interest in the cost of material things but what he knew more than anyone else, and what he taught me, was the value of things. I had no children and was not married when I was first elected to this House. It is Kieran Phelan who taught me the value of family, friendship and loyalty. That is what I will have to thank him for forever.

I never saw him as someone on the same panel or as an opponent in any way. As Opposition Senators have said, he was just a decent person. He was the epitome of what friendship, loyalty and generosity are about. He could have been in the Dáil, as the Minister of State, Deputy John Moloney, would say, but his selfless nature meant he was happy for other people to be there and to have those successes and for him to know he had played a part in their success. He did not want endless accolades or praise. It was enough to see the success of others and to know the part he had played in it. It is fitting that, in the fullness of time, he was elected to the House and played a universally popular and significant role. He taught me the value of many things.

To Mary, Fiona, Martina, Brenda, Aisling, Patrick and especially to Noah Patrick Kieran, which is the full title of Kieran's grandchild, I say my sincerest sympathy. One line sums up Kieran Phelan for me. He was all graces and no airs.