Tributes have been paid to the late Eileen Desmond, the former Labour Party TD and Government minister.
Mrs Desmond was Minister for Health and Minister for Social Welfare in the early 1980s.
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said she was regarded with 'universal respect and affection' within the entire Labour movement.
He said she was a woman of enormous personal and political courage, who at all times fearlessly followed her conscience and her political instincts.
Green Party TD, Dan Boyle, said she had an historic role in Irish politics as the first female Minister for Health, and only the second woman since the foundation of the State to be made a member of the Cabinet.
A native of Kinsale in Co Cork, she represented the constituencies of Mid-Cork and Cork South-Central in the Dáil during a 22-year career in national politics prior to her retirement in 1987.
She also served in the Seanad and represented Munster in the European Parliament.
