Austin Kennan, who has died aged 89, was a former examiner of restrictive practices. He was controversially dropped from the post in 1979 after his relationship with the then minister for industry and commerce, Desmond O'Malley, became strained.
The position of examiner was established in 1953 under the provisions of the Restrictive Practices Act. Austin Kennan, a career civil servant, was appointed in 1973 by the Fine Gael-Labour coalition minister, Justin Keating, for a five-year term, an appointment renewed for a further year by Mr O'Malley in 1978.
The examiner's job was largely confined to inquiring into complaints about unfair business practices, but with the passage of anti-monopolies legislation the post acquired a greater significance.
Mr O'Malley referred the Quinnsworth takeover of Five Star supermarkets to him in response to demands from the independent grocery trade.
Although he reported that the takeover might be in the short-term interests of preserving the jobs of the Five Star employees, he recommended that a public inquiry should be held into the buying procedures of the multiple supermarkets.
After he made his recommendation public, he said it was conveyed to him that Mr O'Malley did not like what he had said. When the failure to reappoint him was raised in the Dáil the minister described his actions as a breach of confidentiality that could have had serious consequences.
He insisted that the decision not to reappoint the examiner predated the Quinnsworth report. Angry that he had lost his post, Austin Kennan opted for early retirement and took up private consultancy work. Subsequently he was appointed national organising secretary of the Irish Federation of Self Employed, then engaged in a war of words with the trade unions over the PAYE issue.
Austin Kennan joined the civil service in 1940 after graduating two years earlier with honours in economics, history, politics, chemistry and physics from University College Dublin. He was assigned to the statistics section of the Department of Industry and Commerce, later to become the Central Statistics Office.
Transferring to the commerce section, he dealt with trade protection.
The minister in charge was Seán Lemass, whose political flair Austin Kennan acknowledged, but whose economic ability he doubted.
Protectionism was a policy he despaired of. "Anyone could get a tariff put on so long as they set up a factory to manufacture something here," he said in an interview in 1980. "You had the most absurd industries set up - all to disappear later under free trade." He said it was little wonder that people living in Ireland associated Irish industry with shoddy goods. There was 50 per cent duty (100 per cent in some cases) on goods from abroad. When that failed to persuade consumers to purchase Irish-made goods, quota restrictions were imposed.
He was relieved to move to the Industrial Development Authority, where one of his duties was to work on a committee reviewing tariffs and quotas. However, the review was not completed.
In 1964 he was promoted to principal officer rank, and one of his first duties in that capacity was to manage the Irish pavilion at the World Fair in Flushing Meadow, New York.
His appointment as examiner in 1973 was a welcome departure from departmental work. He saw it as an opportunity to help keep the "small men" of trade and industry in existence against the "onslaught" of the large monopolies and multinationals of the EEC.
He conducted a number of complex inquiries as part of his work; these included examining petrol distribution and the distribution and supply of films to Irish cinemas. One of his last actions as examiner was to prepare a report on alleged restrictions in the travel trade and the control of retail price maintenance by agents.
He saw his job with the self-employed federation as a continuation of the work he began as examiner - protecting the small entrepreneur, who represented the sector in which he placed most faith for the future.
A staunch upholder of traditional values, he regularly wrote letters to the press in defence of the Catholic Church and its teaching.
Predeceased by his wife Noreen, he is survived by his daughter Eithne.
Austin Kennan: born August 2nd, 1917; died June 20th, 2007