Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

If I may, I will share time with former Labour Party leader and my colleague Deputy Brendan Howlin, who, of course, served with the former Taoiseach John Bruton in government.

On behalf of the Labour Party, I wish to extend our sincere sympathies to the family of John Bruton: to his wife, Finola, to their four children, Juliana, Emily, Mary-Elizabeth and Matthew, to his sister, Mary, and, of course, to his brother and our colleague, Deputy Richard Bruton. We are so sorry for your loss. I extend our sympathies also to the extended family, friends and colleagues of John Bruton in Fine Gael and to his former constituents and supporters in Meath, the constituency he represented for over three decades, an extraordinary legacy of public service. Indeed, John Bruton leaves a significant legacy of public service not just in Meath but nationally and at European level too.

Many stories have been told about him over the past day since the sad news of his death, and any independent observer of Irish coalition Governments throughout the 1980s and 1990s would fairly say that on many economic and social issues, John Bruton and the Labour Party did not agree. Indeed, there were fundamental disagreements, and I think John Bruton would have been the first to acknowledge that, probably with his famous big, booming laugh. Like many others, I have heard so many stories about that famous laugh and I heard it myself on a number of occasions. Many others have spoken about his courtesy and good humour and I think that is also a very fair and genuine observation.

He was a conservative, as has been said, and a very principled public representative of the Christian democratic tradition. This created many difficulties for the Labour Party at the time and for the Labour Party now, which comes from a very different, social democratic and trade union tradition. Both sides, however, as we know, did work together and John Bruton, working with Dick Spring and others in the Labour Party and Democratic Left, made the rainbow coalition a very effective coalition Government. Others have spoken, notably the Minister, Deputy Ryan, about how that rainbow coalition set a model and precedent for three-party coalition governments or, indeed, for coalition governments.

The politics and policies of the rainbow Government undoubtedly went on to fundamentally change Ireland economically and socially and generations have benefited from the policies of that relatively short-lived Government in so many ways, including through the peace process, which others have mentioned. The return of power-sharing at Stormont over the weekend really puts into perspective the work John Bruton, Dick Spring and others in that Government pursued to reinvigorate the peace process with the Anglo-Irish framework documents and how they had to pick up the pieces, as we might recall, after the IRA returned to violence with the bombing of Canary Wharf and the awful murder of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe. These were enormous challenges they were able to address and overcome.

Over 25 years on from the Good Friday Agreement, I think we can acknowledge that John Bruton and that Government played a key role in laying the groundwork for the peace and stability that we now have across this island. Indeed, more recently, John Bruton, as we know, was very aware of the destabilising impact of Brexit and was a vocal critic of the negative impact any return to a hard border would have on the island. Apart from the peace process, the rainbow Government left an important economic legacy in laying the groundwork for prosperity and ending the scourge of large deficits, of unemployment and of mass emigration that had plagued the island throughout the 1980s.

During the rainbow coalition years, there was also important social change, and others have spoken about the divorce referendum.

For many years, the Labour Party had sought to introduce the right to remarry. As Taoiseach, John Bruton played a pivotal role in securing what was really the first great constitutional liberalisation, when the second divorce referendum was finally passed by a narrow majority in 1995.

John Bruton served as EU ambassador to the US from 2004 to 2009. He used his political skills to build and grow relationships with members of the US Congress. Of course, he did not really retire even following that because he remained active in public life, particularly when it came to Irish-British relationships and EU affairs.

To his colleagues in Fine Gael, I extend our sympathy. For us in the Labour Party and for many others, we will always wonder what the great counterfactual of modern Irish history would have been, namely, how things might have been different if that pioneering, Rainbow Government had been re-elected in 1997. I have heard others say that one of John Bruton's biggest political regrets was that that tripartite coalition Government was not re-elected in 1997. Despite that of course, he leaves an enduring legacy. Again, on behalf of the Labour Party, I extend our deepest sympathies to his family, friends and colleagues.

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