The former Clare TD and government minister, Mr Sylvester Barrett, died yesterday at the age of 75.
Mr Barrett, a member of the Fianna Fáil party, was a TD between 1968 and 1987. He was appointed Minister for the Environment in 1977, the year the department was created. He was also Minister for Defence between 1979 and 1981, and Minister of State for Finance in 1982. From 1984 until his retirement in 1989, he was a Munster MEP.
On behalf of the Government, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, expressed his condolences to Mr Barrett's family yesterday, saying he was a popular person in his native Clare, in the Dáil and in the European Parliament. "He always sought to put forward the interests and concerns of the people of County Clare and the midwest region at every opportunity," Mr Ahern said.
Mr Barrett was born at Darragh, Ennis, on May 18th, 1926, the day the Fianna Fáil party was founded. He was educated at St Flannan's College and UCG and worked as an auctioneer before being elected to the Dáil in a by-election in 1968. He maintained a base near Ennis all his life apart from a period when he lived in Kildysart. He is survived by his wife, Mary, and their sons, Frank, Joe, Syl and Tom. Although in the anti-Charles Haughey camp, Mr Barrett along with Mr Haughey and Mr Brian Lenihan telephoned the President in the wake of the Government collapse in 1982, seeking for the Dáil not to be dissolved.
Mr Barrett was one of Fianna Fáil's "gang of 22" who supported George Colley's unsuccessful bid for the party leadership in 1979.
He also voted against the failed Haughey leadership challenge in 1982 and was one of the TDs who signed a petition in 1983 calling for another parliamentary party meeting to vote on Mr Haughey's leadership.
The removal of Mr Barrett's remains takes place from Daly's mortuary chapel, Francis Street, Ennis, to Ballyea Church at 7.30 p.m tonight. Requiem Mass takes place tomorrow at midday.