Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Terry’s family, his wife, Aileen, and his children to the Gallery. My first engagement and time meeting Terry was the day I was elected into Leinster House. We were given offices and I was very privileged that my office was across the corridor from Terry’s. It was next door to Pat O’Neill and Anna. It is where our Leas-Chathaoirleach’s office is now. In that particular floor, one became very friendly with the people on the floor. Terry was always in early in the morning, as Pat was as well. You get to know people early in the morning as well as you get to know them late at night. It is great to see Joe and Brian in the Gallery, because they were like the extended family of Terry.

The one thing Terry was brilliant at was if you were having a bad day, he would cheer you up. He always referred to me as Máirtín. That was his love of his Irish language. Unfortunately, my Irish was pidgin Irish compared to Terry’s, but he would always try to force you to say a few words. I remember I had been on television one night and there was a pile-on afterwards. Terry came in the following morning and said, “Máirtín, wait till I get my hands on ‘em.” He was always there supportive and on side.

His contribution to this House was immense. That came from his intelligence, but also from his experience. When he made contributions on Northern Ireland or his area of spokespersonship, namely, tourism, he spoke with the knowledge of experience. He was then able to use his intelligence and the experience to articulate his point in here.

He spoke very highly of his time in the ESB and what he had achieved there as well and that is outside of what he achieved in local government. Senator McGahon spoke very eloquently here. He worked at one stage with James Bannon and said to me, “Watch John McGahon. He is a man for the future.” I think he is right. Terry could see around corners and predict the future. He would be very proud of the contribution that Senator McGahon made today.

We miss Terry. I miss the phone calls. After he left here, he always kept in touch. He would ring up and say, “Máirtín, this is the Scobe” and two hours later you would still be on the phone. He would have everything analysed, whatever the topics of the day were. He would have every constituency analysed and every electoral area analysed. His knowledge of politics in Ireland, of every county and, in particular, his forensic knowledge of Fine Gael, its politics, its people and its potential was immense. He was a proud Fine Gael person. He flew the flag from 1986 until 2016 and then continued to fly the flag as a private citizen.

The highlight of his year was going over to visit his son in America and going to the Augusta Masters. I knew little about golf, but after spending five years with Terry, I learned a bit about golf.

Ar dheis Dé, a great friend and a great colleague. We miss him dearly.