Jimmy Woulfe and Juno McEnroe profile the new secretary general at the Department of Finance

The Alzheimer Society of Ireland and its carers were yesterday poignantly thanked for the help they gave finance minister Michael Noonan’s wife Florence, who died from the disease last Thursday, 14 years after the illness had gripped her life at the age of 54.

As messages of condolence were descending on the Noonan family home in Limerick yesterday, the parish of St Paul in the suburb of Dooradoyle was rekindling memories of a cherished neighbour and gracious, elegant woman.

The political world has expressed its sympathies to Michael Noonan following the death of the finance minister’s wife, Florence.

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