Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of Labour Party Senators, I pay tribute to the late Dr. Maurice Hayes and join others in welcoming his wife, Joan; children, grandchildren and extended family. It is a pleasure to have them with us. I express my sympathy and that of my colleagues to them on their loss. I also express gratitude for the great, full and productive life that he led and the extraordinary contribution he made to public service in Ireland and on the whole island, North and South.As Gerry Moriarty put it in TheIrish Timeslast December, for more than 60 years Maurice had a distinguished and varied career in public service. His significant contribution to Irish and Northern Irish society spanned local government, the Civil Service, the peace process, policing and the arts. I did not have the pleasure of serving with him in this House as I was elected in 2007 and he had served the previous ten years in the Seanad. I did have the pleasure of meeting and speaking alongside him at a panel to discuss the policing reform that was being brought in by our present colleague, Senator McDowell, who was then a Minister. He spoke so eloquently and in such an erudite and wise fashion about the policing reforms we were bringing in here. He was so informed by and integral to the process of policing reform in the North through his membership of the Patten commission and his experience as the first Catholic ombudsman in Northern Ireland. It was a real pleasure to have had even that short experience of speaking alongside and meeting him.

Listening to the contributions of others, I was struck by what a gentleman he was and how humorous and witty he was. He had a great turn of phrase, even when speaking about matters as serious as policing. Senator Dolan spoke about the spirit of Dr. Hayes being with us. I thought of him in the House last night as we debated the report of the disclosures tribunal, which examined various matters arising out of policing issues. I wondered what he would have had to say on that topic.

Others have spoken of the enormous contribution made by Dr. Hayes in so many ways. I have mentioned his work on policing, but of course he was also chairperson of the National Forum on Europe. In that capacity, he facilitated vital conversations with a wide range of stakeholders and I met him in that context also. We could indeed do with that sort of body now. He was also a great public servant, committed to deep reform of the civil service but also recognising its enormous value, saying it performed a vital balancing role in the machinery of a functioning democracy. Others have spoken about his very varied interests, including sports, the arts, literature, the media, his distinguished chairing of the Ireland Funds and so on. He was really a statesman in the fullest sense of the word, bringing experience and intellect to bear on his role in public life. He had a long and extensive contribution and insight to reconciliation and peace in the North.

He also had a lot to say about the nature of democracy. I was struck by how timely and prescient his words were, looking back at an address he made at the MacGill summer school just four years ago in 2014. He spoke so eloquently about democracy, titling his speech, Even the Greeks know that Utopia is merely another word for nowhere. It was a humorous start to a speech that was full of very interesting and valuable insights into political life in Ireland. That was, of course, under a previous Government. Dr. Hayes began his speech by saying that respect for the political process is not helped by what he called the "Paxmanisation" - a new word to me - of political interviewing, in which politicians of whatever hue are invariably presented as crooks dodging disclosure in an identity parade. It was a typically humorous start with a very serious message.

He provided such wise insights into political life, how to move forward in a democracy and how to move the peace process forward. In that same address, on the topic of the peace process, he quoted Edmund Burke in speaking of how the past can be a barrier to moving forward. He said "the true way to mourn the dead is to take care of the living who belong to them". That is a very fitting epitaph for such a great public servant.