The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, has extended his "warmest congratulations" to his predecessor and former Taoiseach, Dr Garret FitzGerald, who was elected Chancellor of the National University of Ireland (NUI) yesterday.
"Dr FitzGerald has made a huge contribution to Irish public life over many years," Mr Bruton said last night, "and his enthusiasm and willingness to take on new tasks is a remarkable manifestation of his enormous energy."
Dr FitzGerald received 1,733 of the 2,630 valid votes in the election, which took place at the NUI headquarters in Dublin yesterday. There were two other candidates for the post: Mr Patrick Anthony Jones, who received 62 votes, and Mr Pierce Hugh Purcell, who received 835 votes. All NUI graduates were eligible to vote in the election.
Speaking after his election, Dr FitzGerald said the challenge for him in the post was "to lead this great university into the next millennium".
His role, he said, would be "to draw together the constituent parts of the university", he said, "so as to enable it to harness its great federal strength for the advancement of higher education and the promotion of research". As Chancellor, Dr FitzGerald will be head of the country's largest university, which has over 38,000 students. Its constituent colleges are UCD, UCC, UCG and St Patrick's College, Maynooth.
Dr FitzGerald succeeds Dr T.K. Whitaker, who was elected chancellor of the NUI in 1976.
