Garret FitzGerald:
Guest Speaker at the Princess Grace Irish Library
The following notice was issued to invited
guests on the occasion of Dr. Garret Fitzgeralds visit to the Princess
Grace Irish Library on 19 March 2004:
GARRET FITZGERALD
has had careers in air transport, economic consultancy, university
lecturing, journalism, politics and business. After graduating
with a degree in history and modern languages and being called
to the Irish Bar, the first twelve years of his working life were
spent within the Irish national airline, Aer Lingus. At the age
of 26 he became responsible for its economic planning, scheduling,
and rates and fares. |
In
1958 he left Aer Lingus to undertake a career directed initially
towards preparing the highly-protected Irish industrial sector
for free trade as an eventual member of the European Community,
which had been founded a year earlier by six Continental European
countries. |
Within
a couple of years he became Economic Consultant to the Federation
of Irish Industries and secured agreement between the Federation,
the Government and the Trades Union Congress to the establishment
of a Committee on Industrial Organisation, of which he himself
was an active member. Between 1961 and 1965 this Committee surveyed
the whole Irish industrial sector and initiated a rationalisation
of industry in preparation for EC membership. |
Between
1963 and 1969 Dr. FitzGerald also participated in the process
of Irish economic planning, which became the subject of his Ph.D
thesis. |
In
1961 Dr. FitzGerald established, in conjunction with the Economist-owned
EIU of London, an Irish economic consultancy firm, which served
the needs of both the private and public sectors until the early
1970s. In particular, he assisted many firms with advice and assistance
in relation to EC membership, based on frequent contact in Brussels
with the many Directorates-General of the European Commission.
For most of this time Dr. FitzGeralds EIU was the sole
company in Ireland offering this service. |
Dr.
FitzGerald had also become a Lecturer in Economics in the National
University of Irelands Dublin College in 1959, specialising
in the Economics of Transport and EC Affairs. In 1961 he lectured
to industrialists throughout Ireland on the Treaty of Rome. In
1962 Dr. FitzGerald organised the first visit to Brussels by Economics
lecturers from the universities of both the Republic of Ireland
and Northern Ireland. |
From
1954 onwards, Dr. FitzGerald became a columnist for The Irish
Times, writing on a weekly basis on economic and social affairs.
At various times during the 1960s and early 1970s, Dr. FitzGerald
was also the Irish correspondent for the BBC, Financial Times and The Economist. |
In
March 1973, within weeks of Irish accession to the Community,
Dr. FitzGerald abandoned these multiple careers on his appointment
as Minister for Foreign Affairs in a new Coalition Government.
In that capacity he formulated for Ireland an integrationist European
policy, which contrasted sharply with the much more reticent British
approach to membership. |
In
1975 Dr. FitzGerald led what was seen as a highly successful first
Irish Presidency of the EC Council of Ministers. During this Presidency
he led the final negotiations for the first Lome Convention between
the EC and 46 African, Asian, Indian Ocean and Pacific countries
and signed this Convention on behalf of the EC. He also initiated
the first contacts on behalf of the EC Council of Ministers with
the revolutionary Portuguese Government. Later, in 1976, he negotiated
an agreement with the European Commission that accorded Ireland
a unique right to expand its fish catch at a time when other countries
were required to cut back on their catches. |
Dr.
FitzGerald, who had been a member of the Irish Anti-Apartheid
Movement before he was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs,
opposed a visit by the Irish rugby team to South Africa. He also
opposed U.S. policy in Central America and supported an E.U. statement
opposing militarization of this area. |
As Minister for Foreign
Affairs, Dr. FitzGerald also pursued a policy of conciliation vis-à-vis
the Unionists in Northern Ireland, backing the firmly anti-IRA stance
of Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave and, in domestic politics, he actively
supported social democratic policies. |
In 1977, after the
defeat of the Coalition Government, he was unanimously elected Leader
of the Fine Gael Party and, in opposition for the following four
years, pursued liberal policies. In 1981 he formed a Coalition Government
whose vigorous attack on a huge fiscal deficit left by the preceding
administration led after nine months to a temporary return to Opposition.
However, following a third election within eighteen months, he secured
a four-and-a-half year term in Government during which his Government
halved the fiscal deficit, eliminated a very large external payments
deficit, and reduced inflation from over 20% to 3%. |
During this period
in Government Dr. FitzGerald also negotiated an Anglo-Irish Agreement
with Margaret Thatcher, under which the Irish State secured a role
in relation to the protection of the interests of the nationalist
community in Northern Ireland. |
Within the EC, he
secured a supplemental quota for milk, Irelands key agricultural
product and, at the Dublin European Council in December 1984, he
cleared the way for Spanish and Portuguese membership of the Community
by resolving French and Italian differences in relation to wine
policy. |
On the defeat of his
Government in a March 1987 Election, Dr. FitzGerald resigned from
the leadership of his party and, five years later, stood down from
membership of Parliament. |
Since 1987 he has
lectured widely in the United States, Japan, China, Hong, Sri Lanka,
Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Germany, France, Spain, Austria, Belgium, the
Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Kosova, Macedonia,
Croatia, Russia and Kazakhstan, as well as in Britain and Northern
Ireland. |
In 1989, and again
in 1994, Dr. FitzGerald undertook consultancy work in Zimbabwe,
relating to the EU Single Market and other EU issues. And, on behalf
of the EU/TACIS-financed European Expertise Service, he undertook
a mission related to economic policy formulation in Russia in 1993-94.
Moreover, between 1993 and 1995 he undertook three missions to Kazakhstan,
related to issues such as a Free Trade Area linking Kazakhstan,
Kirghizia and Uzbekistan, and preparations by these countries for
WTO membership. In 1998, Dr. FitzGerald also undertook consultancy
in Zambia on the subject of the organisation of government. |
Dr. FitzGerald is
a long-serving member (and from 1990-1995 was Deputy European Chairman)
of the Trilateral Commission, which was established in 1993 by David
Rockefeller to intensify contacts between the United States, Europe
and Japan. |
In 1991 he published
his autobiography All in a Life, and since then has
contributed a weekly column on economic, social and political affairs
to The Irish Times. In 2002 Dr. FitzGerald published
his most recent book Reflections on the Irish State. |
Dr. FitzGerald is
now a member of the Irish Council of State and is Chancellor of
the federal National University of Ireland, which comprises four
of the Irish States seven universities, presiding over its
Senate and Committee meetings. Dr. FitzGerald is also Chairman of
the Future of Europe Committee of the Institute of European Affairs
and is a member of the International Affairs Committee of the Royal
Irish Academy. |
He is also a director
of Age Action Ireland, and is a director DCI, a private company
engaged in export marketing consultancy. He is also a director of
the Greater Europe Fund, and is an advisor to a U.S. company, Integrity
Interactive, which is extending to Europe its activities in relation
to compliance by large companies with legal and ethical requirements. |
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