Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

Senators Fitzgerald, O'Toole, Alex White, Coghlan, Regan, Buttimer, Hanafin, O'Reilly, Feeney, Healy Eames, McFadden and Bacik all expressed their views on the retirement of our Ministers. I wish well all the Ministers who made a magnificent contribution. Anyone who serves in Cabinet for 13 or 14 years has made an enormous contribution and particularly when we had such buoyancy in the economy for most of that time.

I remember when the Minister, Deputy Harney, came to the attention of the former Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, at an Ard-Fheis and he appointed her to the Seanad in 1977. In 1981 and the two elections in 1982 the late Senator, Kieran Phelan, was her director of elections and we all participated and worked very hard to get her elected in those three general elections. She went on to make an incredible contribution over 34 years as has been said by colleagues here. When she became a Minister of State she gave us the clean air that we have over our cities and towns, which was an incredible achievement in very difficult times. I worked very closely with her when she was an excellent Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and I was Chairman of the Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business. I travelled with her to America, Canada and other countries where she was held in the greatest respect. I remember one evening at the Smurfit awards in New York she received outstanding praise from the world leaders and captains of industry who were in attendance. As an Oireachtas Member I was proud to be present at the No. 2 table-----