◎ OireachtasDB

Seanad Éireann · 2026-02-25

Gnó an tSeanaid - Business of Seanad

1 contribution · 1 speaker · 391 words

Download this debate (.txt)

Summary of this debate

Auto-generated

Before I call on the Leader to outline the Order of Business, Members will have been saddened to hear of the death in January of a Member of this House and a friend of many, Mary White. Born in Dundalk, she was a woman who was definitely before her time in terms of expanding the horizons for many in the business community at a time in the 1980s when the opportunities for women in business were limited. She was a pioneer and she and Connie Doody cofounded Lir Chocolates, which many Members have had the opportunity to sample over the years.

She was always generous with Lir Chocolates at Christmas. She was also appointed, and asked to serve, as the chair of Gaisce - the President's Award by the then President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, and used that as a way of extending Gaisce to Northern Ireland and extending the hand of friendship.

Built by scoring every sentence in the debate on how distinctive its language is, then quoting the highest-scoring ones back word for word and in the order spoken. Nothing is paraphrased or invented — if a sentence appears here, it was said in the chamber. Drawn from 391 words across 1 contributions by 1 speakers.

Most used terms in this debate

How often each word appears across the whole debate, ranked by how distinctive it is to it rather than common to all parliamentary language.

gaisce 2
chocolates 2
lir 2
mary 4
cofounded 1
white's 1
connie 1
business 4
panel 2
h-anam 1
padraic 1
white 2

The full debate

All 1 contribution, start to finish, in the order they were made.

CC Mark Daly

Before I call on the Leader to outline the Order of Business, Members will have been saddened to hear of the death in January of a Member of this House and a friend of many, Mary White. Born in Dundalk, she was a woman who was definitely before her time in terms of expanding the horizons for many in the business community at a time in the 1980s when the opportunities for women in business were limited. She was a pioneer and she and Connie Doody cofounded Lir Chocolates, which many Members have had the opportunity to sample over the years. She was always generous with Lir Chocolates at Christmas. It was a time of economic uncertainty and she has a vision and created jobs in the community. It was a clear statement of intent of what she believed about Ireland's possibilities. She was elected to Seanad Éireann in 2002 on the Industrial and Commercial Panel and served three consecutive terms, retiring in 2016. She was the spokesperson for enterprise, jobs and innovation. She championed indigenous industries, the small community businesses that employ the vast majority of people in Ireland and was passionate about doing so. She contributed as well to the discussions on Northern Ireland, particularly through the Good Friday Agreement committee of which she was a member and tirelessly worked to enhance relationships between the North and South. She was also appointed, and asked to serve, as the chair of Gaisce - the President's Award by the then President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, and used that as a way of extending Gaisce to Northern Ireland and extending the hand of friendship.

She was described by the Taoiseach as a "force of nature". I must say the Taoiseach understated what Mary White was like. I would not like to have been on Mary White's panel under any circumstances because she has infectious energy and a can-do attitude. She would definitely go through you if you were in her way, which what it takes in business and often in politics as well. I pass the condolences of Seanad Éireann to her family - to her husband Padraic who looked after her during her last few years, her daughter, sisters and brother Liam and all the extended family. I ask Seanad Éireann to be upstanding. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam.

Download this debate (.txt)