Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to be associated with the tributes that have been paid to the late Deputies Dick Barry and Harry Blaney. Many of us knew Dick Barry for 30 to 40 years. He was a great, kindly, personable man, who, as has been said by Members on the other side, liked nothing more than meeting new Members as they came into the House, conversing with them and regaling them with stories. He was always most engaging. We knew his daughter Myra well and we offer our deepest sympathies to her.

I got to know Harry Blaney very well when he and Jackie Healy-Rae claimed, probably correctly, that they were the fourth wheel under the Government of 1997 to 2002. They did keep it on the road for five years. For family reasons - not a connection, but a friendship - I happened to get to know Harry well. I would like to be associated with those tributes and to pass my sympathies on to his wife Margaret and his son Niall, who served in the other House.

Senator Darragh O'Brien, do you know you are a gas man?