All sides pay tribute to Mrs Robinson

Tributes were paid by all sides of the House to the President, Mrs Robinson, who leaves office today. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said she had represented the State with distinction, and her term of office had been, by common consent, outstanding. He knew she would bring to her new post as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights her own unique style, insight and personal commitment that she had brought to every position she had ever held.

"I think the honour bestowed on her confirms the quality of her work, the strength of her convictions, and her commitment to public service."

The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, said Mrs Robinson had brought the institutions of the State into contact with people who had been previously excluded. "People who felt that they had been subject to discrimination in our society felt they had a friend and to an extent a home in Aras an Uachtarain. That concept of the Presidency is uniquely one that was brought about by Mary Robinson herself."

She had enlivened the office in a very human way, and in her seven years she had epitomised the modernisation of Ireland, able to present on an international stage the view of Ireland, which she personalised and embodied, that was very different to the traditional view that many people relatively unfamiliar with the State might have had. In a sense, her Presidency had shown that Ireland had entered the second half of the 20th century.

The Labour deputy leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said it was a measure of the sophistication and development of the State that its people had put behind them for ever the concept of dynastic succession and that ordinary citizens can be selected to be Head of State.

She (Mrs Robinson) had put Ireland on the world map and reached out to the diaspora in a way that the State had been unable to do previously.

The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, said she would include Mrs Robinson in the list of remarkable women. So many people had empathised with her and she had made the Presidency open to the most vulnerable and marginalised in society. "She will be a hard act to follow. Her's was not a sleepy Presidency and her successor will have a very onerous task."