VAT on shoes, Yes to divorce, and the ‘effing peace process’
A TAX on children’s shoes, the ‘f***ing peace process’ and the formation of an unlikely coalition form a tapestry of some of the memorable moments of former Taoiseach John Bruton’s political career.
Tributes from across the political sphere paint a picture of a gregarious ‘old-style patriot’ who ‘tried very hard to stand in the other person’s shoes’.
Former Fine Gael leader and taoiseach Enda Kenny described Mr Bruton as a ‘fighter’ and an ‘honourable person’. Bertie Ahern, who succeeded Mr Bruton as taoiseach, recalled his distinctive laugh which meant ‘if you were in the Dáil restaurant and the place was jammed, and you heard John’s laugh, well you didn’t have to wonder who it was’. Mr Ahern said that he while he dif- fered frequently with Mr Bruton ‘you never fell out with John’.
VAT ON CHILDREN’S SHOES
Fine Gael campaigned in the 1981 general election on a promise of tax cuts. This promise was quickly dropped upon entering office when they realised the depths of despair the public finances were in as the country grappled with a crushing economic depression and high unemployment. Mr Bruton, then 34, was appointed Minister for Finance by Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald whose government relied on the support of Independents. A proposed VAT on shoes, including children’s shoes, was a bridge too far for Independent Limerick TD JimKemmy who refused to support the measure which led to the government being toppled.
AN UNLIKELY COALITION
‘It’s a bit of a shock,’ said Mr Bruton shortly after receiving his seal of office to become Taoiseach in December 1994.
Just ten months earlier he survived a heave from another Limerick stalwart, Michael Noonan, for the party leadership.
Fianna Fáil and Labour were just a year into a historic coalition when a controversy about the appointment of attorney general Harry Whelehan as President of the High Court, and the fallout over the delay in processing of an extradition order for paedophile priest Brendan Smyth led to the collapse of the government.
The change in Dáil arithmetic, caused by by-elections, meant a new government comprising Mr Bruton’s party, Labour and Democratic Left could be formed.
Pat Rabbitte, a Labour minister in the rainbow government, said yesterday that the coalition was ‘objectively one of the better governments of the last 50 years. A great deal of it is down to the way which he [Bruton] managed it’.
DIVORCE REFERENDUM
In 1995 the country went to the polls again on whether to remove the prohibition on divorce, having overwhelmingly voted not to do so in 1986.
Mr Rabbitte told RTÉ yesterday it was ‘difficult’ for Mr Bruton, who held strong personal religious views, to support the referendum but that ultimately he made a pivotal intervention.
A week before polling Mr Bruton took to the airwaves to advocate in favour of divorce, with the referendum passing by less than half a percent.
THE F***ING PEACE PROCESS
In what he described as a moment of frustration, Mr Bruton told a Cork96fm journalist in April 1995 he was ‘sick answering questions about the f***ing peace process’. In a letter to the radio station days later, Mr Bruton apologised and said that his frustration came due to constant questions about the peace process when there was nothing new to say.
In 1995, Mr Bruton and his UK counterpart, prime minister John Major, launched the Anglo-Irish Framework document which proposed new relations between the Republic, Northern Ireland and the UK.
It set an important pathway towards an eventual peace agreement, achieved in the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
In 1995 he hosted Prince Charles at a black tie dinner in Dublin Castle. It was the first visit by a member of the British royal family since independence.
RETURN TO OPPOSITION AND A LEADERSHIP HEAVE
Despite economic growth and unemployment falling, as the rainbow coalition faced into the 1997 general election Mr Bruton again found himself occupying the opposition benches.
Fine Gael had gained a handful of seats but the losses incurred by Labour saw Fianna Fáil return to power.
Mr Bruton survived a heave attempt in November 2000, but his leadership was toppled in January 2001 after losing a motion of no-confidence by 39 votes to 33, after a marathon seven-hour parliamentary party meeting. After the vote Mr Bruton announced he would not contest the subsequent general election.
EU AMBASSADOR TO THE US
A true believer in the EU project and its potential benefits to Ireland, Mr Bruton became the first EU Ambassador to America in 2004 following his retirement from domestic politics, where he served until 2009.
Yesterday the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described Mr Bruton as someone who was ‘passionately pro-European in government and in opposition’, and someone who ‘knew that Ireland’s place and destiny was at the heart of Europe and made the case for it eloquently’.