Richard Bruton | |
|---|---|
 Bruton in 2013 | |
| Teachta Dála | |
| In office February 2016 – November 2024 | |
| Constituency | Dublin Bay North |
| In office February 1982 – February 2016 | |
| Constituency | Dublin North-Central |
| Chair of the Fine Gael parliamentary party | |
| In office 23 July 2020 – September 2023 | |
| Leader | Leo Varadkar |
| Preceded by | Martin Heydon |
| Succeeded by | Alan Dillon |
| Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment | |
| In office 11 October 2018 – 27 June 2020 | |
| Taoiseach | Leo Varadkar |
| Preceded by | Denis Naughten |
| Succeeded by | Eamon Ryan |
| Minister for Education and Skills | |
| In office 6 May 2016 – 16 October 2018 | |
| Taoiseach |
|
| Preceded by | Jan O'Sullivan |
| Succeeded by | Joe McHugh |
| Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation | |
| In office 9 March 2011 – 6 May 2016 | |
| Taoiseach | Enda Kenny |
| Preceded by | Mary Hanafin |
| Succeeded by | Mary Mitchell O'Connor |
| Deputy leader of Fine Gael | |
| In office 12 June 2002 – 14 June 2010 | |
| Leader | Enda Kenny |
| Preceded by | Jim Mitchell |
| Succeeded by | James Reilly |
| Minister for Enterprise and Employment | |
| In office 15 December 1994 – 26 June 1997 | |
| Taoiseach | John Bruton |
| Preceded by | Charlie McCreevy |
| Succeeded by | Mary Harney |
| Minister of State | |
| 1986–1987 | Energy |
| Senator | |
| In office 8 October 1981 – 18 February 1982 | |
| Constituency | Agricultural Panel |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1953-03-15)15 March 1953 (age 72) Dublin, Ireland |
| Political party | Fine Gael |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 |
| Relatives | John Bruton (brother) |
| Education | |
| Alma mater | |
| Website | richardbruton |
Richard Bruton (born 15 March 1953) is an Irish formerFine Gael politician who served as aTeachta Dála (TD) forDublin Bay North from 2016 to 2024, and previously from 1982 to 2016 for theDublin North-Central constituency. He was theChair of the Fine Gael parliamentary party from July 2020 to September 2023. He previously served asMinister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment from 2018 to 2020,Minister for Education and Skills from 2016 to 2018,Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation from 2011 to 2016,Deputy leader of Fine Gael from 2002 to 2010,Minister for Enterprise and Employment from 1994 to 1997 andMinister of State for Energy Affairs from 1986 to 1987. He was aSenator for theAgricultural Panel from 1981 to 1982.[1][2]
Bruton was born inDublin in 1953, but grew up inDunboyne,County Meath. He is a son of Joseph and Doris Bruton.[3] He was educated atBelvedere College,Clongowes Wood College,University College Dublin andNuffield College,Oxford.[4] At Oxford, he graduated with aMPhil inEconomics, his thesis being on the subject of Irish public debt.[3] He is a research economist by profession.[5] After university he worked at theEconomic and Social Research Institute. This was followed by two years in the tobacco companyP. J. Carroll, before moving on to his final private sector job atCRH.[3]
He is the younger brother ofJohn Bruton, who wasTaoiseach from 1994 to 1997.
Bruton is married to Susan Meehan; they have four children, two sons and two daughters.[6]
Bruton was elected toMeath County Council in1979 and was elected toSeanad Éireann in 1981, as a Senator for theAgricultural Panel.[3] At theFebruary 1982 general election, he was elected toDáil Éireann as a Fine Gael TD for theDublin North-Central constituency.[7] After an initial period on the backbenches, Bruton was appointedMinister of State at the Department of Energy, following the dismissal ofEdward Collins in September 1986.[8] In opposition after 1987, Bruton served in a number offront bench positions including,Energy,Natural Resources,Health,Enterprise and Employment and Director of Policy. He was also the campaign manager for his brotherJohn Bruton's successfulparty leadership bid in 1990.
Following the1992 general election,Fianna Fáil and theLabour Party formed a coalition government, which collapsed in 1994. Bruton then helped to negotiate theRainbow Coalition between Fine Gael, the Labour Party andDemocratic Left. In that government, his brother John Bruton becameTaoiseach. Bruton was appointed asMinister for Enterprise and Employment.
A return to opposition in 1997 saw Bruton become opposition spokesperson on Education and Science, a position he held until he was appointed Director of Policy and Press Director in a reshuffle in 2000. After losing the2002 party leadership election toEnda Kenny, Bruton was retained on the front bench and promoted todeputy leader as well as spokesperson on Finance. After an unsuccessful leadership challenge in 2010, he was demoted to spokesperson on Enterprise, Trade and Innovation.
He was elected toDublin City Council in 1999, representing theArtane local electoral area.[7] He relinquished this seat whendual mandates were banned in 2003.
Fine Gael had a disastrous election result at the2002 general election; Bruton was one of the few frontbench Fine Gael TDs to retain his seat. The party lost 23 of its 54 TDs; party leaderMichael Noonan soon resigned following the poll. Bruton stood as a candidate in the subsequentleadership election.[9] He was defeated byEnda Kenny, but he was appointed deputy leader of Fine Gael and spokesperson forFinance, posts he maintained until 2010.
Bruton was appointed Finance spokesperson in 2002. In that role, he was a consistent critic of government economic policy. In particular, he warned about the government's overreliance on the property sector and said that the government was ignoring the erosion of competitiveness and the loss of export market share as a growing construction sector temporarily insulated the economy from their effects.
In 2006, he told the Dáil that the government had "doubled its dependence on the construction sector to support its revenue. A total of 25% of every tax euro spent by the government comes from the construction sector. We are not in a strong position; we are, in fact, in a vulnerable position".
Bruton raised concerns about the payment of benchmarking awards. In 2003, on behalf of Fine Gael, he proposed a motion that the payment of the remaining phases of benchmarking be suspended pending implementation of a serious reform package so that the €1.3 Billion cost of benchmarking would be matched by commensurate improvements in public services.
On 14 June 2010, Bruton was sacked as deputy leader and spokesperson on Finance, by his leader Enda Kenny, after he informed his colleagues that he would be proposing a leadership challenge against Kenny.[10][11] Kenny explained that he and Bruton had had a series of discussions in which Bruton said he had lost confidence in him. Kenny later told the media that "Richard's decision leaves me with no option but to relieve him of all his responsibilities". He also said that "some unnamed people have done huge damage to Fine Gael through their anonymous comments to the media which has resulted in an opinion poll dominating the news agenda". He then assigned responsibility for the Finance portfolio to DeputyKieran O'Donnell.
The first TD to come out in support of Bruton before his sacking was frontbencherFergus O'Dowd fromCounty Louth.[12] Nine other members of the front bench publicly expressed no confidence in Kenny's leadership. These includedLeo Varadkar,Simon Coveney,Brian Hayes andOlivia Mitchell.
On 17 June 2010, a meeting of the parliamentary party was held and the 70 members cast their vote. The outcome was that the parliamentary party voted confidence in Enda Kenny as leader. Bruton then declined to comment as to whether he would serve in Kenny's front bench, despite saying earlier that it would be hypocritical to do so. On 1 July 2010, he was appointed by Kenny as spokesperson on Enterprise, Trade and Innovation.[13]
Bruton was appointed by the newTaoiseach Enda Kenny asMinister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation on 9 March 2011.
Bruton launched the first annual Action Plan for Jobs in 2012. The Plan's high-level target was to create 100,000 net new jobs by 2016. Bruton announced in May 2015, that the target to create 100,000 additional new jobs had been hit almost two years early. The Action Plan is based on setting realistic targets and focusing on them until the measures required are in place. InThe Irish Times in early 2014, Stephen Collins wrote approvingly that "hundreds of commitments in the programme are steadily being delivered by Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton"[14] and a year later described the annual plan which is "driven by Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton" as being "one of the outstanding success stories of the Coalition’s term".[15] In an editorial theIrish Independent said that Bruton deserves credit for the manner in which the Action Plan for Jobs has been crafted and implemented across a range of government departments over the last three years.[16] A review of the Action Plan for Jobs by theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) concluded it had led to two significant developments in Irish public governance. One is a concerted whole of government policy implementation with political backing and oversight at the highest level. The other important development noted by the OECD is the rigorous quarterly monitoring and reporting system modelled on theTroika programme.
While campaigning for the government before theEuropean Fiscal Compact referendum on 17 May 2012, Bruton admitted on live radio the possibility of there being a second referendum if the Irish people voted "No".[17]
Following the2016 general election, there wasa delay in government formation. On 9 May 2016, after talks had concluded on forming a new government, Enda Kenny appointed Bruton asMinister for Education and Skills. Bruton launched the first Action Plan for Education in September 2016. The Plan's high-level ambition is to make Ireland's education and training system the best in Europe by 2026. Following the election of Leo Varadkar as Taoiseach, Bruton was reappointed as Minister for Education and Skills on 14 June 2017.
After MinisterDenis Naughten's resignation from government due to controversy surrounding the National Broadband Plan, Bruton becameMinister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment on 11 October 2018. He was re-elected at thegeneral election in February 2020,[18][19] but was not appointed to cabinet in theGovernment of the 33rd Dáil.
On 22 July 2020, Bruton was elected chair of the Fine Gael parliamentary party. He served as chair until September 2023, when he was succeeded byAlan Dillon.
On 5 September 2023, he announced that he would not contest thenext general election.[20]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister of State at the Department of Energy 1986–1987 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Enterprise and Employment 1994–1997 | Succeeded byas Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment |
| Preceded byas Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation | Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation 2011–2016 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Education and Skills 2016–2018 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment 2018–2020 | Succeeded byas Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Deputy leader of Fine Gael 2002–2010 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of the Fine Gael parliamentary party 2020–2023 | Succeeded by |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Father of the Dáil (withWillie O'Dea) 2020–2024 | Incumbent |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
