David Norris (Independent)

On behalf of the Independent group, I express my sympathy to the late Senator Myles Staunton's wife, Marianne, and his family, whom I am very pleased to see in the Visitors' Gallery of this Chamber, which he graced with his presence. I know that my friend and colleague, Senator Quinn, who knew him better than I did, wishes to speak about a man whom we all liked and whose company we enjoyed.

He was a charming gentlemanly man, a man of ideas and endless intellectual curiosity. That is why it is so shocking that he died at a comparatively young age. I would say that because I am getting towards 70 years myself. I can hardly believe that it must be nearly a year since I saw him in Leinster House. He used to come from time to time to use the Oireachtas Library and the dining room. I remember having a little chat with him over coffee. Last year I met him and his wife, Marianne, in Westport. Unlike Senator Bacik, I have no known connections with Westport but it is one of the most beautiful towns in Ireland, a little like Birr, because it is a planned town. The way the river flows through it and the arrangement of the elegant buildings would have appealed to Myles Staunton because he had an organised mind. As others have said, he was ahead of his time.

I had the privilege of serving on both occasions when he was a Member of this House and I remember him speaking on what subsequently became known as green issues, organic development, small local development using local products such as turf and seaweed. That is very much the way of the future. He is a real and substantial loss not just to this House and to his family but also to the country because we are beginning to realise the value of community, and learning from northern Spain, where one of the largest banks has survived because it is a community development, where everybody has a part share of it. A conference is being organised shortly about co-operatives. It would be such a privilege to hear the views of the former Senator Myles Staunton on these developments and I think he would have approved of it because he put the values of humanity above the system. For that we all honour him.

Let me end with a little Latin tag that I think applies particularly to him. Nollum quod tetigit non ornavit - He touched nothing that he did not improve.