Cluskey’s memory shines through from this very grim Mother and Baby report
THE name of Frank Cluskey has emerged as one of the scarce positive aspects of the 3,000 pages of the Mother and Baby Homes report.
He put through groundbreaking legislative changes in 1973 to give the first welfare payments to what were then known as “unmarried mothers”.
The report notes that by the late 1960s more than nine out of 10 mothers in these homes gave their children up for adoption.
But the single mothers’ allowance, and associated measures, helped accelerate social change as unwed mothers increasingly kept their babies.
It is important to see the context of the socially conservative early 1970s and the 1973-1977 coalition in which Cluskey served as junior welfare minister.
The new government was barely in office when it was walloped by the economic shock of the first global oil crisis.
The Fine Gael-Labour coalition left Cluskey in charge of welfare under the tutelage of his Labour Party boss, Brendan Corish, who was the senior minister at that time.
Labour’s other notable achievements in welfare included payments to deserted wives and prisoners’ wives; paying children’s allowance to mothers rather than fathers; and the phased reduction of the pension age from 70 to 66 years – a first since pensions were introduced back in 1909.
Cluskey and his party colleagues succeeded in tripling yearly welfare spending from IR£92m to IR£275m over four years, a rise from 6.5pc of economic output, or GNP, in 1973 to 10.5pc in 1977. It meant ferocious rows between Cluskey and the hardline finance minister, Richie Ryan, dubbed “Richie Ruin”.
But by the time the 1977 general election came around, the voters did not show gratitude – they voted Fianna Fáil back into office by a landslide.
After the election, Cluskey did a straight hands up. “Jaysus, Richie, you always said we’d get no f**king thanks for all the welfare increases.”
Frank Cluskey was an old school Dublin Labour person who left school at the age of 12 and went on to serve his time in the butcher trade.
He came to politics via the unions.
He was renowned for his ready wit, which could be scathing at times.
Of the now President Michael D Higgins, he once memorably noted: “Given a choice between saving the world and saving the Labour Party, he’ll always go for the easy option.”