An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business Seanad Éireann — 2023-12-14 ============================================================ Martin Conway (FG), Administrative Panel I join in the tributes to our colleague, Tom Hickey, who is retiring today. In my 13 years as a Member of this House I found that Tom had an inability to say "No" to any request which is a testament to him. I would often come at the last minute for that tour I had forgotten to book and he would always accommodate it. One day David Blunkett was in Dublin and he called in to visit me in the House. It caused a bit of a diplomatic incident, but Tom took control of the situation. The former Home Secretary of the United Kingdom had a great evening here in Leinster House as result of the courtesy and professionalism of Tom Hickey. I wish him every success in his retirement. Thank you, a Chathaoirligh, Martin, Bridget and their staff for all your help. I wish all members of the parliamentary community a happy and safe Christmas. We will reconvene here at whatever date in January and continue the important work we do here in the Seanad. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2023-12-14/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:32+00:00 Sitting date: 2023-12-14