I want to express my deep sympathy to the wife and daughters of the late Seán Doherty his sudden and unexpected death.  My thoughts at this time are with his wife Maura and his daughters Rachael, Cara, Leah and Evelyn.

He has died just a few weeks short of his sixty first birthday and a few weeks after he buried his own mother. 

Seán Doherty and I entered Dáil Eireann together on the same day in 1977.  He can from a family that had a long tradition of public service and political involvement in County Roscommon.  I know that he was very proud that his daughter Rachael is continuing the family tradition.

Seán held high political office as Minister of State at the Department of Justice from 1979 to 1981, Minister of Justice from March to September 1982 and as Cathaoirleach of the Seanad from November 1989 to January 1992.  He also served as a member of Roscommon County Council from 1973 to 1991.

He was a politician of long experience and was a very considerable and able parliamentarian.

He served with distinction as a member of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee, which carried out the inquiry into the evasion of Dirt tax.

In 2001 the Oireachtas Committee on Public Enterprise established a sub-committee under the chairmanship of Sean Doherty to investigate the cost overrun in an Iaranród Éireann signalling contract.  The hearing sat for 235 hours over 26 days.  While it had to be abandoned in 2002 when a High Court judgment restricted the scope of all Oireachtas inquiries it served a very useful purpose.  Seán Doherty distinguished himself in the Chair.

Seán Doherty was a man of very considerable ability and a strong personality.  He inspired the loyalty of his friends and the support of his constituents.  As everyone who knew him in this House can testify his company and his conversation were sought out and were never ever dull.

After a promising early career in An Garda Siochána he entered politics and enjoyed a career that had it full share of controversy and that was seldom far from the centre of events.

In latter years Seán was also a man of renewed and deep religious belief and I know his faith was a very important part of his life.

Seán Doherty like every one in public life will be subject to the judgement of human history.  But what really mattered to him is the divine judgement to which he has now been called.  Unlike human history that judgement is not based on a few public events but on a total knowledge that history can never have.  Seán Doherty trusted that it would be a merciful judgement and I believe he was right.

On my own behalf and on behalf of the Fianna Fáil party I wish to pay tribute to a colleague and a friend of nearly thirty years.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dilís

ENDS