Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join the Taoiseach and many others in the House in paying tribute to an extraordinary man and a deeply impactful politician who, sadly, has died at the age of 76 after a long illness which he carried with extraordinary grace. Like others, I express my condolences to the Bruton family, to Finola his wife, to his son Matthew, to his daughters Juliana, Emily and Mary-Elizabeth, to his grandchildren, in particular to his brother and colleague and friend of ours here, Richard, who has maintained this extraordinary standard in public service from the Bruton family, and to his sister Mary.

On a family note and on a lighter note I remember that in my early 20s, when John Bruton was Taoiseach, he came to Cork to canvass for the divorce referendum. He and my father, two conservatives, were campaigning for a "Yes" vote in the divorce referendum in a rural parish. He stayed that night in our home. I remember us as children lining up to welcome the Taoiseach into our house. He treated us all with generosity, including us in debate and discussion. Perhaps what I remember most about that night was that after we were sent to bed we were kept awake for two or three hours by John Bruton's laugh in the kitchen downstairs. I suspect the neighbours may also have been kept awake. As people have said, it was infectious and so much part of his personality. People often did not see the scale of his personality in political debate or see the softer and funnier side of John Bruton which many of us had the privilege of witnessing.

For the Fine Gael family this is a huge loss. There are Fine Gael councillors, TDs and Senators across the country for whom John Bruton was central to their careers in terms of encouragement and advice. People continued to look up to John Bruton long after he left these Houses. He was 35 years as a TD. He held multiple Ministries. He was party leader for 11 years and Taoiseach between 1994 and 1997. In truth, it is safe to say that John was a foundation stone in many ways for this party over the past half century, during the contribution he made in this House and outside it, during his time while elected and in the advice he gave not just to the leadership in the party but also to many others across the country. John was policy focused always. He did not believe there was a problem that did not have that solution; it was just a question of being determined enough to find a solution that would solve that problem.

He played an important role in building the economic model that Ireland enjoys and that is so successful today. Deputy Howlin referred to the time of the rainbow Government. I believe that Government was one of the most impactful and influential Governments of recent decades.

John was pro-European. He was vice-president of the European People’s Party. He had enormous respect across the European Union, and the response to his death from many European leaders is testament to that and to how they still remember him.

He was always pro-enterprise. He wanted Ireland to compete internationally and win. In many ways, he put the building blocks in place to make that happen.

He was in tune, as people have said, with rural as well as urban Ireland. He understood farming and farmers and had an appreciation for the land and why it is still so important to rural communities and Irish politics.

He was a team player, too, even though he held extraordinarily strong views himself. The rainbow Government and the compromise he was willing to show to make it work are testament to that.

He had absolutely no tolerance, though, for violence or intimidation as a means to achieve political ends. His approach to Northern Ireland was to reach out to all communities and to put in place conversations and building blocks to ensure a peace process was possible some day. He does not get enough recognition, in my view, for the work he put into achieving in 1995 an Anglo-Irish framework document with the British Prime Minister, John Major, that in many ways, from a content point of view, was much of what subsequently became a peace agreement that has sustained until today. John’s willingness to reach out, listen to and try to understand unionism was something he was sometimes ridiculed for and criticised for from various quarters, but he was right, and what he managed to do was to show unionism that there were people south of the Border who wanted to understand it, who wanted to include it and who wanted to ensure that it was part of plans for a future Ireland that was shared on this island. Political relations on the island of Ireland were enhanced because of the bravery of John Bruton in being willing to stand up to others who would try to ridicule him for that.

As Deputy English referenced, John Bruton was a fierce competitor in his own constituency but also outside it. He was a formidable debater and people, whether they agreed with him or not, always listened when John Bruton spoke. He challenged when he needed to. He worked with others when he needed to. His relationship with John Major in particular and the British Government was evidence of that. When he needed to speak up and criticise, he was not shy about doing it, but when there was an opportunity to work together, he grasped it. He challenged any justification for violence or, indeed, discrimination from whatever quarter they came.

John’s strong views could, of course, create divisions at times. During his leadership of the Fine Gael Party, there were many intense debates. I remember them well, and so do others in this House, but it was a time of vibrant clashes of ideas and personalities within the party. It was lively democracy. John Bruton would not have had it any other way. It was a time when the party attracted new members from all walks of life and from different parts of Ireland, including me. John Bruton was central to my decision to enter politics in 1998. I was 25 years old and weighing up the options as to whether I would enter public life. I think it is true to say that, without the encouragement and confidence of John Bruton at the time, I may not have made the decision I did. He subsequently fought a by-election as if it were his own, which proved to be successful both from my perspective and for the party. Of course, I had my differences with John at times, particularly during leadership challenges within the party, but I have to say that my respect for John Bruton was never diminished. In later years, when John was EU ambassador in Washington and I was an MEP visiting Washington, he took me in and we spent hours discussing transatlantic policy, which he revelled in. When I was making more political judgment calls during Brexit and the Covid years, John Bruton was quietly there, offering advice, making himself available to meet people and offering himself as a go-between with people who had very different perspectives, looking for nothing in return except wanting to discuss and be taken seriously. In 26 years in politics, in my view there is nobody whom I have respected more than John Bruton – a political thinker, a Christian democrat, a family man, a patriot to the end. Rest in peace.

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