Brian Joseph Lenihan (21 May 1959 – 10 June 2011) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Minister for Finance from 2008 to 2011, Deputy leader of Fianna Fáil from March 2011 to June 2011, Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform from 2007 to 2008 and Minister of State for Children from 2002 to 2007. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Dublin West from 1996 until his death in 2011.
Early and private life Born in Dublin in 1959, Lenihan grew up in Athlone, County Westmeath until the age of 12, attending the local Marist Brothers primary school. He was then educated at Belvedere College, where he was school captain, then at Trinity College Dublin where he obtained an LL.B. (first class). He was elected a foundation scholar of the college in 1979. While in Trinity, he was Treasurer of the College Historical Society. Lenihan was later awarded an LL.M. (first class) at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and was called to the Irish Bar by the Honorable Society of King's Inns.
He began lecturing law at Trinity College Dublin in 1984 and in the same year was called to the Irish Bar. From 1992 to 1995, he was a member of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal and the Garda Síochána Complaints Appeal Board, and in 1997 he became a Senior Counsel.
Lenihan married Circuit Court judge Patricia Ryan in 1997; and they had two children.
In December 2009, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Early political career Lenihan is a member of an Irish political family. His father Brian Lenihan Snr, first elected in 1957, was a cabinet Minister for over twenty-five years, Tánaiste, MEP, and a candidate for president in the 1990 election. His grandfather was Patrick Lenihan, who followed his son into the Dáil, serving as a TD from 1965 until 1970. Lenihan's aunt Mary O'Rourke was first elected as a TD in 1982, served for a time in the Senate, and is also a former cabinet minister. His brother Conor was a TD from 1997 to 2011 and served as a Minister of State. Despite these facts, Lenihan said that he resented any implication that he was a member of the political establishment.Interview on The Week in Politics on RTÉ, 8 June 2008.
Lenihan first held political office in 1996 when he was asked to stand in the Dublin West by-election, which was prompted by the death of his father. Noel Dempsey, who was Fianna Fáil's Director of Elections in the contest, did not expect his party to hold the seat. Lenihan topped the poll, with 252 more first-preference votes than Joe Higgins of Militant Labour, and was elected on the 11th count. Following his re-election at the 1997 general election Lenihan became Chairman of the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution. He served in this position until 2002 when he was appointed Minister of State for Children.
Lenihan was often deployed as a representative of government on topical issues or television shows, and was known for giving his personal opinion on some matters. He was involved in a dispute with the Labour Party over its leader Pat Rabbitte's desire for a presidential election in 2004; Lenihan said the party was "turning the presidency into a political football". He defended the government again in February 2005, this time against Sinn Féin who he suggested were "milking the peace process for political gain". He would later suggest his preference for becoming the Opposition if the alternative was to enter government with Sinn Féin. When three Irishmen fled convictions on terrorism charges they had received in Colombia, the Minister described their return as "most unhelpful to the peace process". Lenihan spoke at the Fianna Fáil Ardfheis in Killarney on 22 October 2005, and at the Ardfheis in Citywest on 24 March 2007. Appearing on The Week in Politics in the wake of unfounded allegations published by a number of Sunday newspapers on Liam Lawlor's death in October 2005, Lenihan said Lawlor's legacy would be the setting up of a Press Council to deal with such matters as they arose in future and was also among the politicians who paid tribute to Lawlor in Dáil Éireann. When other Fianna Fáil ministers were silent, Lenihan stressed the acceptance of illegal payments by former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Manchester was "unthinkable", a comment highlighted positively by Pat Rabbitte in Dáil Éireann following Ahern's public apology in October 2006. Lenihan denied Brian Cowen was "setting a bad example" following a 2007 Hot Press interview in which the future Taoiseach admitted smoking cannabis in his student past. He was involved in the negotiations between Fianna Fáil and the Green Party to form a government in 2007.
Minister for Children (2002–2007) In 2002, Lenihan was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and at the Department of Education and Science, with special responsibility for children.
In this capacity, Lenihan announced a new news television programme targeting young people, dealt with matters relating to the internet and pedophilia, announced changes to Ireland's adoption laws and increased the numbers of gardaí employed in the Central Vetting Unit which assesses childcare workers. In 2005, Lenihan was permitted to attend cabinet meetings, despite not being a member of the government. He was involved in a proposal to outlaw domestic spanking in June 2005. On 25 October 2005, he expressed upset as a government representative at the "repeated failure and gross dereliction of duties" highlighted in the Ferns Report. He spoke at the Irish Nurses Organisation conference in May 2006 in place of the Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney. He then addressed a United Nations committee on children's rights in September 2006. On 16 October 2006, Lenihan announced that legislation increasing the age of criminal responsibility by five years from 7 to 12 would come into law immediately. Before leaving office in 2007, he announced several new items, including a review of pedophilia and an increase in the number of judges and other officials working with criminal children. He received criticism from a number of nurses in a disagreement over their working hours at another conference of the Irish Nurses Organisation on 10 May 2007.
Cabinet career (2007–2011) Minister for Justice (2007–2008) After the 2007 general election, Fianna Fáil formed a new coalition government under Taoiseach Bertie Ahern with the Green Party and the Progressive Democrats, and the support of Independent TDs. Lenihan was appointed as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the only Fianna Fáil TD to be promoted to the cabinet. Lenihan's father had held the post from 1964 to 1968, making them the only father-son pair to have held that office. Lenihan stated that a referendum on children's rights would take place. His first function as Minister for Justice was to attend the graduation of newly trained members of the Garda Síochána Reserve on 16 June 2007. As Minister for Justice, Lenihan was involved in several high-profile deportation cases.
Minister for Finance (2008–2011) Considered a "close ally" of Brian Cowen, Lenihan was promoted to the office of Minister for Finance, following the election of Cowen as Taoiseach on 7 May 2008. His 2006 intervention to assist with the development of emergency legislation when it emerged rapists were being freed from jail was seen as a major factor in his promotion to the Department of Finance. Lenihan's time as Minister for Finance was dominated by the financial and banking crises which faced Ireland in the late 2000s. He unveiled three government budgets within the space of fourteen months, nationalised Anglo Irish Bank and unveiled the National Asset Management Agency or NAMA.
2008 Bank guarantee On 18 September 2008, Lenihan issued an emergency phone call to Director-General of RTÉ Cathal Goan after an edition of the radio phone-in programme Liveline, presented by Joe Duffy, led to mass concerns that Ireland's banking system was on the verge of collapse. The Minister warned in an interview the following day with Economics Editor for RTÉ George Lee that the public need not react "on the basis of unfounded allegations made on radio programmes". On 29 September, Lenihan agreed to issue a broad state guarantee of Irish banks for one year, with the intention of recapitalising them to enable them to continue to lend into the Irish economy.NTMA web page on the 2008 bank guarantee; seen 21 July 2011 The decision was highly contentious and required a sharp recovery of the world economy that did not occur, but the guarantees were renewed in 2009, 2010, and 2011.
In February 2008, an Irish Department of Finance presentation stated that: ".. any requirement to provide open-ended/legally binding State guarantees which would expose the Exchequer to the risk of very significant costs are not regarded as part of the toolkit for successful crisis management and resolution.""Overview of Financial Stability Resolution Issues", page 11. Pdf file of slideshow prepared on 8 February 2008
The scope of the guarantee - whether it could, or should, have been limited or broad - was examined by an Oireachtas committee in 2010. By late 2010, the costs were so high that the government sought help from the ECB and IMF (see below). By mid-2011 the banks' debts were downgraded to junk status.
Budget 2009
Lenihan delivered the 2009 Budget on 14 October 2008 – the budget had been called early due to the worsening economic conditions. The controversial measure of removing Medical Cards from most over-70-year-olds (by means testing) caused a massive public outcry, culminating in a backlash against the government and backbench unease; one Fianna Fáil TD, Joe Behan, left the party in protest.
Public outcry meant the government had to twice revise the budget in an attempt to satisfy pensioners, unions, and backbenchers. Lenihan was not present at the press conference, which included Brian Cowen, John Gormley and Mary Harney, to announce the removal of minimum wage employees from the 1 per cent income levy and a promise that 95 per cent of senior citizens would keep the medical card.
Second (emergency) Budget 2009 and NAMA
On 7 April 2009, Lenihan delivered an emergency budget overriding the measures previously announced, amounting to a further €3.25bn increases in taxes and reductions in spending programmes in the current year, as well as corresponding fiscal changes to future years. Explaining the purpose of the budget changes before the Dáil, he said: "We must stabilise our public finances. Until we show that we can put our own house in order, we cannot expect those who have invested here and who might invest here in the future to have confidence in us".
The emergency budget also saw the announcement of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), designed to house banking assets. The Cabinet approved 150 pages of draft legislation outlined by Lenihan at a meeting in late July 2009; it was published later that week. In September 2009, Lenihan announced €54 billion would be given by NAMA to Irish banks in exchange for an estimated €77 billion in loans. The legislation enacting NAMA was passed in Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann before being signed by President Mary McAleese during November 2009. Lenihan identified nine prospective NAMA board members on 22 December 2009.
In February 2010, Cowen defended his claim that NAMA would increase the supply of credit into the economy, despite the International Monetary Fund (IMF) saying it would not lead to any significant increase. "People should contemplate what level of credit accessibility we'd have in this economy without NAMA," he said.