A new bench was installed on Prospect Hill this week, dedicated to the past and present staff of Tynwald.

Clerk of Tynwald Jonathan King said it was arranged by the late MHK Dominic Delaney and his widow Julia.

The bench is engraved with the message ‘to the Tynwald staff past and present who helped us to help others – from Dominic and Julia Delaney’.

Mr King said: ‘Before he died, Dominic discussed this bench with me on a number of occasions and I was pleased to reassure him that his proposed wording was in my view highly appropriate.

‘In fact, as a strapline for an independent parliamentary service, “helping them to help others” is hard to beat.

‘Thank you, Dominic and Julia. Many of my Tynwald staff colleagues, past and present, have been unsung heroes, and public recognition of this kind is enormously appreciated when it comes along.’

Dominic Delaney served as an MHK from 1976 to 1995 and as an MLC until 2005. When his former Keys colleagues declined to re-elect him to the LegCo, he stood in the resulting Keys by-election, and won, before standing down at election in October 2006.

Mrs Delaney had served as a MHK from 1986 to 1991, and stood down at the dissolution in October 1991.