Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First, I welcome our new colleague, Senator Hackett, to the House. I congratulate her and her family. It is great to have them in here today as it is certainly a day they will always remember.

I would like to raise the passing of the late Gay Byrne and extend my condolences and those of the Fianna Fáil group in the House to his wife, Kathleen, daughters, Suzy and Crona, and his larger family and colleagues at RTÉ. I grew up watching Gay Byrne on "The Late Late Show" every Friday night. He was a real trailblazer not alone in his distinguished broadcasting career but in the massive influence he had on wider society, giving people permission, as it were, to discuss topics that would not generally have been discussed at that time. Not alone did he introduce us to Boyzone but during the AIDS epidemic, he introduced Irish people to condoms and there was a funny episode where he-----