Brian Lenihan was born in Dublin on May 21, 1959. His father, also Brian, served in a range of cabinet positions, including Tanaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Justice. His grandfather PJ Lenihan was a Fianna Fail TD for Longford-Westmeath and his aunt Mary O’Rourke also served in cabinet. His brother Conor Lenihan was a Minister for State. Brian grew up in Athlone, where he attended the Marist primary school, and at the age of 12 moved to Dublin. He went to Belvedere College and studied law in Trinity College and Cambridge and was called to the Irish Bar in 1984.
In 1996 he became a Dail deputy when he won the Dublin West by election caused by the death of his father, Brian Lenihan snr. In 1997, he married Patricia Ryan.
Brian Lenihan topped the poll in Dublin West in the 2002 general election, but was overlooked by Bertie Ahern for promotion to the Cabinet and was appointed Minister of State for Children. There was press comment that his talents were being overlooked and that he was a man that Ahern was said “not to like”.
The long-awaited promotion to the Cabinet came following the 2007 election when he again topped the poll in Dublin West. This time he was appointed Minister for Justice. His career in the Department of Justice ended abruptly in May 2008 when Mr Ahern resigned amid critical reports on his personal finances from the Mahon Tribunal.
The new Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, unexpectedly promoted Mr Lenihan to succeed him in Finance after less than a year as a senior Minister.
Brian Lenihan called it a “fantastic honour” but soon realised he had been handed a poisoned chalice as tax revenues plummeted and the construction industry went into nose dive. He told a conference of the industry that he had “the misfortune to have become Minister a few weeks ago as the building boom was coming to a shuddering end”.
The €3 billion deficit Mr Lenihan was forecasting for 2008 had ballooned to €7 billion several months later, and there was serious concern about the situation of the Irish banks following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in New York.
After only four months in office, he and his predecessor at the Department of Finance, Brian Cowen, would be confronted with an ultimatum to guarantee the depositors and bond holders of the Irish banks or face a run on these banks that could collapse the Irish economy.
For the next two-and-a-half years, Mr Lenihan had the unpopular task of introducing budgets that imposed levies on pensions, cut incomes, reduced public expenditure and standards of living while bank debts spiralled to fearful heights. In the early stages he was admired for his no-nonsense stance, but his last months in the Department of Finance were a politician’s nightmare as he endured mounting criticism for key decisions while battling recently diagnosed pancreatic cancer.
The economist and journalist, David McWilliams described receiving a visit late at night on September 17 at his home from Mr Lenihan who arrived chewing garlic. Over cups of tea, Mr Lenihan for several hours asked McWilliams for advice about the worsening situation. He said Mr Lenihan indicated his civil servants were nervous about offering a full bank guarantee.
Following a crisis meeting in Government Buildings on the night of September 29, the Government decided to guarantee all deposits and “certain debt” of the six Irish banks and building societies. This was estimated as totalling €440 billion of liabilities. Mr Lenihan described the guarantee, which other countries soon copied, as “the cheapest bailout in the world”, words that would come back to haunt him.
Presenting his 2010 budget in December, described as “the harshest in decades”, Mr Lenihan confidently asserted that “the worst is over”. However, international disquiet at the size of Ireland’s bank debts and the effect of zero economic growth on the public finances drove the cost of borrowing ever higher. Mr Lenihan was obliged to deny in October 2010 that Ireland would soon need an IMF-EU bailout as the interest rate on Government bonds surged over 8 per cent.
Following a spate of further denials from various Ministers, Mr Lenihan returned from a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on November 16th to announce that the IMF-EU team was arriving in Dublin.
It was some months later after Fianna Fáil had been driven out of Government in the March 2011 general election that Brian Lenihan revealed his inner feelings on the bailout saga. He was especially bitter about the role of the European Central Bank which he virtually accused of forcing Ireland to accept the bailout.
On the final terms of the bailout, Mr Lenihan said the interest rate charged was “above what was required” and the schedule to downsize the banking system “unimplementable”. Of his own role, he said: “I believed that I had fought the good fight and taken every measure possible to delay such an eventuality and now hell was at the gates.
“I’ve a very vivid memory of going to Brussels on the final Monday to sign the agreement and being on my own at the airport and looking at the snow gradually thawing and thinking to myself: this is terrible. No Irish minister has ever had to do this before.”
By the time of these revelations, his world had greatly changed. In January 2011, he was defeated by Michéal Martin in the contest for the leadership of Fianna Fáil and in the March election the party was ousted from Government.
He was an extremely likable and able politician and lawyer, once seen as a future leader of Fianna Fáil. However he unsuccessfully contested the Fianna Fáil leadership after Brian Cowen’s resignation but was the only Fianna Fáil TD elected in Dublin in February’s General Election. A fluent French speaker, he also studied piano and was a lifelong lover of classical music.
He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December, 2009, and he died on June 10, 2011. He is survived by his wife Circuit Court judge Patricia Ryan and his children, Tom and Clare, his mother Ann, brothers, Conor, Niall and Paul, sister Anita and aunt Mary O’Rourke.