Brian Lenihan, who has died aged 52, was an extremely likable and able politician and lawyer, once seen as a future leader of Fianna Fáil.
But he will be mainly remembered as the minister for finance who played a leading role in the controversial banking guarantee in September 2008 and the follow-up EU-IMF rescue package two years.
In June of 2008, he had succeeded to the second highest post in Government at a time when the Irish banks were concealing losses on loans to property developers that would bring the country to the verge of bankruptcy.
After only four months in office, he and his predecessor at the Department of Finance, former taoiseach 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 would 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.
In spite of these handicaps he a fought a tough campaign last March to retain his seat in Dublin West against the anti-Fianna Fáil tide and was the only one to win a seat for the party in the capital.
The man once tipped as a future taoiseach now became deputy leader of a party that had been so humiliated at the polls that its survival was in doubt. It was a tough burden for a scion of a political dynasty that stretched back several generations.
Mr Lenihan was born in Dublin on May 21st, 1959. He studied law in Trinity College, Dublin and was called to the Irish Bar in 1984.
In 1996, he entered full-time politics when he won the byelection in Dublin West caused by the death of his father, Brian Lenihan snr In 1997, he became a senior counsel and that year married Patricia Ryan. They would have two children.
After the 2002 general election, Mr Lenihan topped the poll in Dublin West but was overlooked for promotion to the Cabinet and was appointed a minister of state for children. There was press comment that his talents were being overlooked and that he was a man that then-taoiseach Bertie Ahern was said "not to like".
The long-awaited promotion to the Cabinet came following the 2007 general election when he again topped the poll in Dublin West. This time Mr Lenihan was appointed minister for justice, equality and law reform, the third member of the Lenihan dynasty to serve in Cabinet, following his father and his aunt, Mary O’Rourke.
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.
Mr 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 for finance 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.
The economist and journalist, David McWilliams described receiving a visit late at night on September 17th 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.
McWilliams maintains that he [McWilliams] recommended a guarantee on bank deposits and funding but apparently not on subordinated debt. He said Mr Lenihan indicated his civil servants were nervous about offering a full guarantee.
Following a crisis meeting in Government Buildings on the night of September 29th, 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 Mr 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.
He is survived by his wife Patricia and his children, Tom and Clare.
* Brian Lenihan: Born May 21st, 1959; Died June 10th, 2011.