Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I join colleagues in their expressions of sympathy to Terry's clan who are with us today. I am relative newcomer to the Seanad and came here in 2016, so unfortunately I did not have the pleasure to meet Terry and know his work in this institution. Regardless of your political party, all of us can say that once you have served in the Seanad, there is a great element of kinship and these statements are always important because they give Members like ourselves, who are relatively new to the institution, an awareness, understanding and appreciation for the people who served before us and what they contributed.

In advance of today's statements I had a look over the record of the Seanad to get a bit of an insight into Terry.There were three or four issues that jumped out at me straight away, as I took pot luck and read different statements from him. Those issues were tourism, sport, planning and County Louth. All of these are very admirable issues to work hard on.

I also saw from the Seanad record gur Gaeilgeoir go smior ab ea Terry fosta, gur bhain sé úsáid as an nGaeilge agus gur chuir cé an Ghaeilge chun tosaigh san áit seo. When we pass on there is an old saying in Irish, "go bhfuilimid imithe ar Shlí na Fírinne", that we are gone on the way or the path of truth. We had a wonderful opportunity today, albeit that is a sad occasion for Terry's family, friends and Fine Gael colleagues, to express some truth and remember the truth about Terry Brennan as a Senator and as a man.