I thank the Leader for organising the debate on Gaza during the recess. It was very well received. Justine McCarthy said in The Sunday Times that sitting beneath the Chamber's Wedgwood blue carved ceiling listening to some of the finest oratory ever to reverberate there, one could only feel grateful to the people for saving the Seanad from extinction.

Good.

That was a commendable initiative by the officers of the House.

I also express sympathy to Eileen Paisley and Kathleen Reynolds on the loss of their husbands - two stalwarts of the peace process. We remember Albert Reynolds warmly in my constituency. He received us all in 1992 when it was the 400th anniversary of TCD. He and his family were most kind to us in Dublin Castle at a reception. His family also chose Brendan Kennelly's poem, "I See You Dancing, Father" for part of his memorial service. There has been some revisionism about the Reverend Paisley and I suppose that is inevitable, a Chathaoirligh, but as a biblical man himself he would appreciate that the labourer who entered the vineyard of the peace process at the eleventh hour was rewarded along with all those who had been there all the time, such as John Hume, President Clinton and Prime Minister Blair.

Bertie Ahern.