Born: April 19th 1936 Died: February 4th, 2018
Séamus Pattison, who has died aged 81 , spent 46 years as TD for Carlow-Kilkenny and was part of what party leader Brendan Howlin has described as the “old Labour tradition’’ .
The odds against re-election were sometimes formidable in the decades between 1961 and 2007 during which he served in the Dáil, as Labour, sometimes split into warring factions, served in government and opposition at various times.
With others at the time, such as Dan Spring in Kerry, Michael Pat Murphy, in west Cork, Sean Treacy, in Tipperary (before the left the party), he held his seat while others with high academic and media profiles in the party bit the electoral dust.
He was minister of state for social welfare in the Fine Gael-Labour coalition government from 1983 to ’87, having earlier served as a member of the European Parliament for two years.
He was ceann comhairle from 1997 to 2002 and leas cheann comhairle from 2002 until his retirement from politics five years later.
He served as mayor of his native Kilkenny in the 1960s and ’70s.
Pattison was steeped in Labour politics from his youth, his father James P Pattison, having served as a TD from the 1930s to the ’50s.
Educated at St Kieran’s college, Kilkenny, and UCD, he worked as a trade union official before his election to the Dáil.
In his early years in Leinster House, he served as party spokesman on justice and, later, education. In the 1970s, he was spokesman on lands and held the defence and marine portfolios in the 1980s.
Anti-poverty agency
As minister for state in 1986, he launched an anti-poverty agency, under the auspices of his department, to engage in pilot programmes and research, replacing the combat poverty agency which was closed down in 1980.
In opposition, some years later, as the recession took its toll, he accused the then Fianna Fáil minority government of excluding almost all older people from an extension of dental and optical benefits to the spouses of insured workers.
He also accused the then government of taking advantage of the unorganised status of Army personnel to halve the pay of apprentices in their first year.
A measure of the respect in which he was held by the House was shown in 1997, when he was made ceann comhairle, as Fianna Fáil’s Bertie Ahern formed what appeared initially to be a fragile government with the help of independents.
Highlights for Pattison were presiding over proceedings when the then British prime Minister Tony Blair, and, later, the then president Mary McAleese addressed the Dail.
His handling of the Blair address in 1998, a sensitive political event at the time, won particular praise, as he gave a speech mixed with humour and historical references.
“Today is a significant step forward in the history of this parliament and indeed in the history of this island,’’ said Pattison. “Prime Minister, your very presence here today symbolises the ever-maturing and indeed the coming of age of the relationship between our two countries.’’
Pattison said down through the years, he doubted very much if any member of the Oireachtas envisaged a British prime minister would be making such an address. He praised Blair’s contribution to the Belfast Agreement.
The same year, Pattison led an Irish parliamentary delegation to the United States for discussions on the agreement with senior US politicians and officials.
Inevitably, he sometimes crossed swords with TDs as ceann comhairle, but nobody doubted his impartiality and integrity.
He was the recipient of warm tributes when he retired from the Dáil.
In recent years, Pattison suffered from ill-health, but he retained his interest in politics and his sense of humour when visited by family, friends and former colleagues.
Séamus Pattison was unmarried. He is survived by his brothers, Mgr Francis, Joe and Michael and extended family.