John Bruton: The conviction politician who became a pragmatist

This was later described by Spring’s chief adviser, and current Irish Examiner columnist, Fergus Finlay, as basically sore losing.

The Fianna Fáil/Labour government had collapsed amidst bitter recriminations over the appointment of Attorney General Harry Whelehan to the presidency of the High Court.

Trust had broken down between Spring and the then taoiseach Albert Reynolds.

Bruton could barely believe it when Spring and Bertie Ahern seemed poised to make a quick deal to go back into government while treating the resignations of Reynolds and Whelehan with a form of political amnesia. 

He denounced the deal telling the nation, Spring, and Labour that Fianna Fáil could never be trusted.

Nine days later, Bruton was taoiseach after the Fianna Fáil/Labour deal fell apart over yet more allegations of betrayal of trust. 

He was able to put behind Dick Spring’s rejection two years earlier when he assumed Labour would sign up to a coalition with Fine Gael and the Progressive Democrats and quickly conducted a deal between himself, Spring, and Democratic Left’s Proinsias De Rossa.

Despite their ideological differences, Bruton as taoiseach made it work. The conviction politician became a pragmatist.

Up to that point, despite a 25-year Dáil career at the coalface of Irish politics, which had seen him elected at the tender age of 22 in 1969, and reach the heights of minister for finance, John Bruton was seen as one of life’s political losers.

He was only 34 when he was granted the keys to the nation’s finances by Garrett FitzGerald in the Fine Gael Labour coalition which was elected in June 1981. 

Yet, just seven months later the government fell when it failed to get its budget passed in the Dáil.

Proposals to extend Vat to clothing and footwear were too much for the independent socialist Jim Kemmy, and he let the coalition know that he could not support the budget. 

A compromise proposal to exempt children’s clothing and shoes was rejected by the Department of Finance for the absurd reason that women with small feet might be able to avoid the tax by buying children’s shoes.

Bruton, captive to his officials, refused to overrule them. 

The result was that he became the first minister for finance in the history of the State not to see the house pass its government’s budget.

The reason Bruton was in this position in the first place was due to the precarious nature of the country’s finances and a dire warning from the Department of Finance that the State would run out of money and be forced to go with a begging bowl to the dreaded International Monetary Fund.

Bruton was determined not to take Ireland down such a route and so introduced a supplementary budget in the autumn of 1981. 

But he lacked the political skills to get his full budget passed and Fine Gael lost office.

It was soon back in power in November 1982, but Bruton was demoted to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and endured a few difficult years in office characterised by constant rows with the Labour party. 

These rows were based around political ideology.

Bruton was a conviction politician, enamoured of a prosperous market-driven economy. 

He looked enviously at Britain where Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government was able to implement the free-market principles that he so clearly believed in himself.

He was again appointed to Finance in 1986 but the Fine Gael Labour government was on its last legs and Labour refused to go along with his cost-cutting budget. 

Fine Gael lost the subsequent election and would spend seven long years in opposition.

But at least Bruton had the satisfaction of seeing his successor, Fianna Fáil’s Ray McSharry, carry out his retrenchment programme and bring order to the State’s finances.

The biggest casualty of Fine Gael’s 1987 general election rout was Garret FitzGerald who promptly resigned as leader. 

Bruton contested the leadership but lost out to Alan Dukes. 

It was a crushing blow in what was ultimately a contest between the social democratic and christian democratic traditions of the party which had riven the party since its Just Society days of the 1960s.

Dukes had been closely aligned with the social and economic liberalism of FitzGerald. 

Bruton was seen as an integral part of Fine Gael’s conservative identity. 

There was some irony in this in that he was first attracted to Fine Gael by Declan Costello’s Just Society document.

Yet, Bruton was from the party’s big farm rancher tradition and quickly became associated with its conservative wing after he was elected for the constituency of Meath at the 1969 general election. 

He would be re-elected ten times until his resignation in October 2004 to take up the position of EU ambassador to the United States.

Bruton’s time in the Dáil bookended two disastrous times for Fine Gael. 

In 1969 the party was stagnating and lost its fourth election in a row to Fianna Fáil. 

In 2002 it suffered its heaviest ever electoral defeat winning only 31 seats and 22.5% of the vote.

Highs and lows

Yet, in the intervening period Bruton was central to Fine Gael’s highs and lows.

If the Vat on children’s shoes debacle was his lowest moment, then becoming leader in late 1990 after the party’s humiliating defeat in the presidential election and taoiseach four years later were its soaring highs.

Bruton was never beloved by the party or the country in the way FitzGerald was, but his government had significant achievements to its name.

Bruton was a patient steward of the peace process and struck up a good working relationship with John Major.

Many nationalists distrusted him, seeing him as too close to the unionist position, but it was his understand of the unionist voice that enabled him to keep the peace process on track despite setbacks, most notably the ending of the IRA ceasefire in early 1996. 

He remained ever hostile to Sinn Féin.

Often derided as a conservative catholic, Bruton was a strong supporter in cabinet of putting a referendum on divorce to the country and played a leading and even decisive role in ensuring it was passed in November 1995, albeit by the narrowest of margins.

On the economy Bruton, never an admirer of social partnership, became a late convert seeing it as the continuing basis for the consensual development of the economy. 

He was a passionate European and led a very successful European presidency in the second half of 1996.

It did not, however, presage re-election to government. 

Despite overseeing a strong economy, Fine Gael’s gain of nine seats in the June 1997 re-election could not offset Labour’s losses and John Bruton was ousted from office by Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats. 

Before the Dáil was finished, Fine Gael lost patience with him and replaced him in 2001. 

Despite retaining his Dáil seat the following year he was delighted to get the opportunity to serve as EU ambassador to Washington which he did with distinction from 2004 to 2009.

John Bruton’s was a life dedicated to public service and Irish people should speak his name with pride.

• Prof Gary Murphy, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University