Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the 18 Members of the House for their contributions to the Order of Business.

I shall begin by joining with the Cathaoirleach and Senator Wilson, on behalf of all of us, in extending our sympathies to the Georgian people on the tragic loss of 11 lives in an awful fire that took place in the city of Batumi. As Senator Wilson rightly said about the people of Georgia, and I had the opportunity to visit Georgia recently, they cherish democracy and freedom. It is important, in the context of where we are in society and life today, that we join in expressing our sorrow and sadness to the Georgian people through their ambassador in Ireland. He is a very amicable and personable man who does a huge amount of work. On behalf of the Fine Gael group and that of the House, all of us individually and collectively extend our deepest sympathies on the loss of life in the tragic fire.

I join with all Members of the House in their expressions of sadness that our colleague and friend, Senator Denis Landy, has decided to retire due to ill health. All that I wanted to say about him has been said. As Leader of the House, I got to know him through our work on the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE. As Senator Ó Clochartaigh said, he was a very convivial colleague. He was a great man to make his point at a meeting. He was an extraordinarily well read Member. I had the pleasure of being with him in America as part of an OSCE mission to oversee voting and we had a wonderful trip. He was a man of huge insight, and still is. As has been said by many of his colleagues here today, he was a trade unionist in the old style of the movement. He was a socialist. He was a very proud member of the Labour Party and is still a member. I hope he remains committed to working, as he has done, on behalf of the people of Tipperary. He was a valued local authority member. As a Member of this House, he played a pivotal role. Up until recently he issued emails to advocate on behalf of councillors.

Denis had the distinction of being elected to two different panels - the administrative and agricultural panels. He will be remembered for his work as a representative of councillors. I want to wish him well in his retirement. He is a sad loss to this House because he brought a different perspective. As Senator Ó Clochartaigh rightly said, one could have many a battle with him on the floor of the House or at a committee but he was always willing to park any difference when one left the debate. He was a wonderful colleague. He had a huge depth of knowledge about many different issues. I really enjoyed his company on the trips with the OSCE. I thank him for his service to the Labour Party and to the local authority in his native Tipperary. I also thank him for his work as a Member of the Oireachtas. I wish him well and hope that he will be able to actively contribute to the House as a non-elected Member. I thank him and his family for their many years of service as a member of the political class.

I thank Members for their contributions on the resignation of the Tánaiste, Frances Fitzgerald. On a personal level, and on behalf of the Fine Gael Party, I want to express my sincere thanks to the Tánaiste for her work as a Minister, as a pioneering Minister for equality throughout her tenure in the Departments in which she served. As Chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children, I had the pleasure of working with her as the first member of the Cabinet to be a Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. I had the pleasure of working with her on a number of initiatives in that Department. She was exemplary as a Minister. I had the pleasure of working with her on the marriage equality referendum where she launched a Fine Gael LGBT group. On a personal level, she has been a huge source of support and advice to me along my journey in life.She is a friend and a woman whose advice I cherish. She was an exemplary politician and I very much regret her resignation. Today in this House we are debating an issue that is before a tribunal of inquiry. It is called the Charleton tribunal, established by the Houses of the Oireachtas. We are having a discussion this afternoon and we have lost a Cabinet Minister on the basis of a media frenzy, as the Taoiseach said, about a number of emails, when 230 documents have been sent to the tribunal. I will reiterate the point I made in the House last week and the week before, namely, that all of us on this side of the House have one interest and one interest only - that the truth be established and that there will be political accountability. To be fair to the Fianna Fáil Party, the issue of political accountability is not one to which it is adverse. However, when I hear members of the Sinn Féin Party lecturing us on political responsibility and political correctness -----