Gene Fitzgerald: Gene Fitzgerald, who has died aged 75, was a traditional grassroots Cork politician who first came to prominence because of his association with Jack Lynch.
He was first elected to the Dáil in a byelection in the summer of 1972, having had a background of involvement in the GAA and Fianna Fáil. It was an important byelection for Lynch, given that it was in his home patch. Fitzgerald was elected for the constituency of Mid-Cork.
In 1977, he was appointed by Lynch to be minister for labour. Before that, he was a member of the committee on procedure and privileges and the Dáil and Seanad committee on secondary legislation.
Lynch was in his last few years as taoiseach and Cork inevitably was going to figure in the ministerial stakes. The then taoiseach was close to Cork businessman, Willie O'Brien, who was Fitzgerald's employer in his earlier career.
But two years into his ministerial role, Fitzgerald was described in The Irish Times as a nonentity.
"Gene Fitzgerald is generally regarded in the industrial relations business as a decent guy, a good skin, a perfect gentleman, certainly the type of person you would have no scruples about when buying a second-hand car.
"But gaining a reputation for decency is not necessarily the same thing as doing a good job as minister for labour. To the man in the street, Fitzgerald is something of a nonentity.
"He never seems to be doing anything, he's rarely on television or radio, and any announcement tends to be inside-page stuff in the newspapers. In fact, very often the only time the public becomes aware of his existence at all is when somebody starts shouting for him to do something about some national calamity like an ESB or telecommunications strike."
This reputation for being a political lightweight would continue to dog Fitzgerald, much to his considerable annoyance. But he was showing himself to be a wily and clever grassroots operator.
Fitzgerald negotiated the national understanding, which was popular with the unions, but accepted with deep reluctance by the employers in the late 1970s. It was, by any standards, a controversial agreement.
When Lynch stood down as taoiseach in 1979, Fitzgerald backed George Colley, Charlie Haughey's political enemy dating back to the 1960s.
He was one of the ministers who canvassed for Colley, but when Haughey took over he retained the Corkman in an attempt to boost his ratings in Lynch's stronghold.
In December 1980, Fitzgerald was promoted to the finance ministry. He took the place of Michael O'Kennedy, who was appointed EU commissioner. Fitzgerald was an extraordinary appointment. He revelled in the job, but the real minister for finance was Haughey, who meddled in every department and was particularly keen to have somebody in finance who would do his bidding.
When Fitzgerald introduced his first budget as minister, it had Haughey's imprint. In December 1980, an Irish Times editorial said: "We have a new minister for finance. Nothing has changed. The famous committee-of-one, Mr CJ Haughey, will still hover over the finance desk. Mr Haughey appreciates more than anyone else that finance is power, and power he is not going to let out of his own hands."
The editorial added: "This is not to say that Mr Gene Fitzgerald is a mere cypher; he is indeed very hardworking and professional. But nobody can doubt that Mr Haughey's ideas will be carried out to the letter by the occupant of that chair."
Fitzgerald would do what he was told by the taoiseach.
Haughey's control was total. In January 1981, a spokesman for Fitzgerald went so far to say that it was usual for the taoiseach or other government ministers to answer financial questions in the Dáil immediately after the budget statement.
The late John Kelly, brilliant academic and one of Fine Gael's brighest stars during the 1980s, was involved in sharp exchanges with Fitzgerald in the early summer of 1981.
Kelly asked if the government of the day had got any legally binding commitments from the private sector in regard to its investment plan published the previous February. Fitzgerald said that the plan was being monitered by a cabinet sub-committee.
The minister was visibly out of his depth.
After 15 years in the Dáil, Fitzgerald opted for a career as a member of the European parliament. He served there for 10 years before unexpectedly announcing his retirement in 1993. He cited personal reasons.
"I felt the time had come for me to spend a bit more time with my wife and family," he said.
He remained active within Fianna Fáil and was a regular attender of ardfheiseanna and party meetings in Leinster House.
To meet, he was genial and pleasant. He knew that he had been lucky in politics. Promoted by Lynch and retained by Haughey, he had an extraordinarily fortunate career.
In the 1980s, as Cork was devastated by unemployment, he was scathing about the performance of the then FG-Labour government. He accused it of deliberately hoodwinking the people of his native county by pretending to be genuinely interested and concerned about the problems of the Munster region.
He warned that many firms in the Cork and Kerry region were managing only with great difficulty to stay in business, and only a government lifeline, such as the lifting of VAT, even for a limited period, would save them.
He was acting out his role as the local Cork politician who entered national politics through a byelection and climbed to cabinet office during a turbulent decade.
Fitzgerald is survived by his wife, Noreen, children Áine, Aileen, Aindrias, Niamh and Eimear, his sister, Mamie, and his brother, Dan.
Gene Fitzgerald: born August 1932; died December 14th, 2007