Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Quite rightly, there will be many tributes paid to John Bruton today, as a politician, our EU ambassador, a former Taoiseach, a public representative and one of the youngest people ever elected to Dáil Éireann. He was all of that and more to me and to many of us here. He was a role model and, for me, a supporter as I began my political career.

My earliest memory of him is from when I was a nine-year-old child at the party Ard-Fheis with my little autograph book, running around trying to get everybody I thought was famous to sign it. John was a former Minister at the time and very shortly after it, in 1981, became our Minister for Finance. He gave me time. I have loads of little autographs but his is special. Who knew that nine-year-old would move to Dunboyne many moons later and come out of mass one Sunday morning to find John on a soapbox, microphone in hand, extolling the virtues of Fine Gael and the wonders of our policies to the people of Dunboyne? A couple of years later, we moved to Ratoath and my dad and I came out of mass one Sunday morning to find John on another soapbox with his microphone. This was the leader of our party, still absolutely entrenched in local politics and in reaching out and speaking to people in the way old-fashioned politics was conducted. One would genuinely think the party leader would be too busy doing stuff for the party to be able to go door to door. Some of the conversations I have had in the past 24 hours involved stories of people having him rock up to their door in the middle of campaigns and spending time with them. That was hugely valuable and it is why he is so loved and respected in the town of Dunboyne and elsewhere. He doubled down on canvassing when he was leader more so than at any other time.

When it was my turn to start my political career in 2006, John was there. He was a bit like a giant and because he was so great, it was actually hard to realise he was giving me advice and support. Yet, he did so for many years. When I became a councillor, he was there at the end of a phone and there for the cup of coffee. He was always great and wise but humble and genuinely down to earth in his advice. Even after being in poor health for the past while, he called me on St. Stephen's Day last year to offer his condolences to me. These things really mean a lot when we are talking about giants.

John was one of our greats. He was a true and brilliant statesperson. He was such an intellectual that I think some of the stuff he was trying to convey sometimes went over my head. He continued to try to tell us the things he thought were the right things for the party, the country and the people. He had a huge interest in international affairs. Anybody who has worked with or for him will say that. It was lovely to hear people paying tribute to him yesterday on our radio and television programmes. The tributes were all genuine, heartfelt and absolutely accurate.

We will miss John's contributions to public life.On behalf of all my colleagues in the Fine Gael family, I offer our deepest condolences to his much-loved family, Finola, Emily, Matthew, Juliana and Mary-Elizabeth, our colleague Richard, his sister Mary and his grandchildren along with his very large group of friends and colleagues. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.