Richard Bruton

Bruton was born in Dublin in 1953, but grew up in Dunboyne, County Meath. He is a son of Joseph and Doris Bruton. He was educated at Belvedere College, Clongowes Wood College, University College Dublin and Nuffield College, Oxford.{{cite web |url=http://www.finegael.ie/our-people/ministers/richard-bruton |title=Richard Bruton TD |work=Fine Gael Party website |access-date=3 January 2013 |archive-date=13 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113205959/https://www.finegael.ie/our-people/ministers/richard-bruton/ |url-status=live }} At Oxford, he graduated with a MPhil in Economics, his thesis being on the subject of Irish public debt.{{cite news |url=http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/1206/1228470880684.html |last=Sheridan |first=Kathy |newspaper=The Irish Times |title=The Mr Nice Guy of Irish politics |date=6 December 2008 |access-date=7 December 2008 |archive-date=20 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520221155/http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/1206/1228470880684.html |url-status=live }} He is a research economist by profession.{{cite web |url=http://www.richardbruton.ie/about/ |title=About Richard Bruton |work=Richard Bruton's official website |access-date=31 July 2008 |archive-date=8 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100308074029/http://richardbruton.ie/about/ |url-status=live }} After university he worked at the Economic and Social Research Institute. This was followed by two years in the tobacco company P. J. Carroll, before moving on to his final private sector job at CRH.

He is the younger brother of John Bruton, who was Taoiseach from 1994 to 1997.

Bruton is married to Susan Meehan; they have four children, two sons and two daughters.{{cite news |url=http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/heir-apparent--keeps-his-cool-as-knives-are-sharpened--for-fg-leader-2055596.html |title=Heir apparent keeps his cool as knives are sharpened for FG leader |work=Irish Independent |date=10 February 2010 |access-date=10 February 2010 |first=Sam |last=Smyth |archive-date=13 February 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100213191232/http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/heir-apparent--keeps-his-cool-as-knives-are-sharpened--for-fg-leader-2055596.html |url-status=live }}

Bruton was elected to Meath County Council in 1979 and was elected to Seanad Éireann in 1981, as a Senator for the Agricultural Panel. At the February 1982 general election, he was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fine Gael TD for the Dublin North-Central constituency.{{cite web |url=http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=3443 |title=Richard Bruton |work=ElectionsIreland.org |access-date=3 September 2009 |archive-date=12 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100312055048/http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?id=3443 |url-status=live }} After an initial period on the backbenches, Bruton was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Energy, following the dismissal of Edward Collins in September 1986.{{Cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1986-10-22/13/|title=Removal and Appointment of Ministers of State: Announcement by the Taoiseach – Dáil Éireann (24th Dáil) |date=22 October 1986|website=Houses of the Oireachtas|access-date=10 January 2021|archive-date=12 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112113353/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1986-10-22/13/|url-status=live}} In opposition after 1987, Bruton served in a number of front bench positions including, Energy, Natural Resources, Health, Enterprise and Employment and Director of Policy. He was also the campaign manager for his brother John Bruton's successful party leadership bid in 1990.

Following the 1992 general election, Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party formed a coalition government, which collapsed in 1994. Bruton then helped to negotiate the Rainbow Coalition between Fine Gael, the Labour Party and Democratic Left. In that government, his brother John Bruton became Taoiseach. Bruton was appointed as Minister for Enterprise and Employment.

A return to opposition in 1997 saw Bruton become opposition spokesperson on Education and Science, a position he held until he was appointed Director of Policy and Press Director in a reshuffle in 2000. After losing the 2002 party leadership election to Enda Kenny, Bruton was retained on the front bench and promoted to deputy leader as well as spokesperson on Finance. After an unsuccessful leadership challenge in 2010, he was demoted to spokesperson on Enterprise, Trade and Innovation.

He was elected to Dublin City Council in 1999, representing the Artane local electoral area. He relinquished this seat when dual mandates were banned in 2003.

Fine Gael had a disastrous election result at the 2002 general election; Bruton was one of the few frontbench Fine Gael TDs to retain his seat. The party lost 23 of its 54 TDs; party leader Michael Noonan soon resigned following the poll. Bruton stood as a candidate in the subsequent leadership election.{{cite news |url=http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0614/breaking38.html |title=The line of leaders since FitzGerald |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=14 June 2010 |access-date=14 June 2010 |archive-date=15 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101115094807/http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0614/breaking38.html |url-status=live }} He was defeated by Enda Kenny, but he was appointed deputy leader of Fine Gael and spokesperson for Finance, posts he maintained until 2010.

Bruton was appointed Finance spokesperson in 2002. In that role, he was a consistent critic of government economic policy. In particular, he warned about the government's overreliance on the property sector and said that the government was ignoring the erosion of competitiveness and the loss of export market share as a growing construction sector temporarily insulated the economy from their effects.

In 2006, he told the Dáil that the government had "doubled its dependence on the construction sector to support its revenue. A total of 25% of every tax euro spent by the government comes from the construction sector. We are not in a strong position; we are, in fact, in a vulnerable position".

Bruton raised concerns about the payment of benchmarking awards. In 2003, on behalf of Fine Gael, he proposed a motion that the payment of the remaining phases of benchmarking be suspended pending implementation of a serious reform package so that the €1.3 Billion cost of benchmarking would be matched by commensurate improvements in public services.

On 14 June 2010, Bruton was sacked as deputy leader and spokesperson on Finance, by his leader Enda Kenny, after he informed his colleagues that he would be proposing a leadership challenge against Kenny.{{cite news |url=http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0614/breaking5.html?via=rel |title=Kenny sacks Richard Bruton from Fine Gael front bench |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=14 June 2010 |access-date=14 June 2010 |archive-date=19 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101119045415/http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0614/breaking5.html?via=rel |url-status=live }}{{cite news |url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0614/finegael.html |title=Richard Bruton sacked as FG deputy leader |work=RTÉ News |date=14 June 2010 |access-date=14 June 2010 |archive-date=16 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100616062756/http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0614/finegael.html |url-status=live }} Kenny explained that he and Bruton had had a series of discussions in which Bruton said he had lost confidence in him. Kenny later told the media that "Richard's decision leaves me with no option but to relieve him of all his responsibilities". He also said that "some unnamed people have done huge damage to Fine Gael through their anonymous comments to the media which has resulted in an opinion poll dominating the news agenda". He then assigned responsibility for the Finance portfolio to Deputy Kieran O'Donnell.

The first TD to come out in support of Bruton before his sacking was frontbencher Fergus O'Dowd from County Louth.{{cite news|url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-30461594.html|title=First Fine Gael frontbencher emerges in support of Bruton|work=Irish Examiner|date=14 June 2010|access-date=14 June 2010|archive-date=17 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100617205116/http://www.examiner.ie/breakingnews/ireland/first-fine-gael-frontbencher-emerges-in-support-of-bruton-461594.html|url-status=live}} Nine other members of the front bench publicly expressed no confidence in Kenny's leadership. These included Leo Varadkar, Simon Coveney, Brian Hayes and Olivia Mitchell.

On 17 June 2010, a meeting of the parliamentary party was held and the 70 members cast their vote. The outcome was that the parliamentary party voted confidence in Enda Kenny as leader. Bruton then declined to comment as to whether he would serve in Kenny's front bench, despite saying earlier that it would be hypocritical to do so. On 1 July 2010, he was appointed by Kenny as spokesperson on Enterprise, Trade and Innovation.{{cite news|url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0701/finegael.html |title=Bruton & Noonan return to Fine Gael frontbench |date=1 July 2010 |work=RTÉ News |access-date=3 July 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704030628/http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0701/finegael.html |archive-date=4 July 2010 }}

Bruton was appointed by the new Taoiseach Enda Kenny as Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation on 9 March 2011.

Bruton launched the first annual Action Plan for Jobs in 2012. The Plan's high-level target was to create 100,000 net new jobs by 2016. Bruton announced in May 2015, that the target to create 100,000 additional new jobs had been hit almost two years early. The Action Plan is based on setting realistic targets and focusing on them until the measures required are in place. In The Irish Times in early 2014, Stephen Collins wrote approvingly that "hundreds of commitments in the programme are steadily being delivered by Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton"{{cite news |url=http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/opposition-gains-initiative-in-post-troika-vacuum-1.1733946?page=2 |title=Opposition gains initiative in post-troika vacuum |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=22 March 2014 |access-date=31 March 2014 |archive-date=31 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140331151223/http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/opposition-gains-initiative-in-post-troika-vacuum-1.1733946?page=2 |url-status=live }} and a year later described the annual plan which is "driven by Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton" as being "one of the outstanding success stories of the Coalition’s term".{{cite news|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/stephen-collins-d%C3%A1il-antics-and-water-charge-protesters-fail-to-drown-out-economic-good-news-1.2085769|title=Dáil antics and water charge protesters fail to drown out economic good news|newspaper=The Irish Times|date=31 January 2015|access-date=13 June 2015|archive-date=29 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150629151021/http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/stephen-collins-d%C3%A1il-antics-and-water-charge-protesters-fail-to-drown-out-economic-good-news-1.2085769|url-status=live}} In an editorial the Irish Independent said that Bruton deserves credit for the manner in which the Action Plan for Jobs has been crafted and implemented across a range of government departments over the last three years.{{cite news|url=http://www.independent.ie/opinion/editorial/editorial-progress-made-on-jobs-but-its-a-long-road-ahead-30048952.html|title=Editorial: Progress made on jobs, but it's a long road ahead|work=Irish Independent|date=28 February 2014|access-date=31 March 2014|archive-date=31 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140331145559/http://www.independent.ie/opinion/editorial/editorial-progress-made-on-jobs-but-its-a-long-road-ahead-30048952.html|url-status=live}} A review of the Action Plan for Jobs by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) concluded it had led to two significant developments in Irish public governance. One is a concerted whole of government policy implementation with political backing and oversight at the highest level. The other important development noted by the OECD is the rigorous quarterly monitoring and reporting system modelled on the Troika programme.

While campaigning for the government before the European Fiscal Compact referendum on 17 May 2012, Bruton admitted on live radio the possibility of there being a second referendum if the Irish people voted "No".{{cite news|url=http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/bruton-raises-prospect-of-second-treaty-referendum-551913.html|title=Bruton raises prospect of second treaty referendum|work=Irish Examiner|publisher=Thomas Crosbie Holdings|date=17 May 2012|access-date=17 May 2012|archive-date=31 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231001200/http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/bruton-raises-prospect-of-second-treaty-referendum-551913.html|url-status=live}}

Following the 2016 general election, there was a delay in government formation. On 9 May 2016, after talks had concluded on forming a new government, Enda Kenny appointed Bruton as Minister for Education and Skills. Bruton launched the first Action Plan for Education in September 2016. The Plan's high-level ambition is to make Ireland's education and training system the best in Europe by 2026. Following the election of Leo Varadkar as Taoiseach, Bruton was reappointed as Minister for Education and Skills on 14 June 2017.

After Minister Denis Naughten's resignation from government due to controversy surrounding the National Broadband Plan, Bruton became Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment on 11 October 2018. He was re-elected at the general election in February 2020,{{cite news |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/dublin-bay-north-results-social-democrats-labour-ff-take-final-seats-1.4165182 |title=Dublin Bay North results: Social Democrats, Labour, FF take final seats |date=10 February 2020 |orig-date=9 February 2020 |first=Paul |last=Cullen |newspaper=Irish Times |location=Dublin |access-date=5 June 2021 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210606065549/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/dublin-bay-north-results-social-democrats-labour-ff-take-final-seats-1.4165182 |archive-date=6 June 2021 }}{{cite news |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/election2020/dublin-bay-north |title=Election 2020: Dublin Bay North |date=10 February 2020 |newspaper=Irish Times |location=Dublin |access-date=5 June 2021 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210606065538/https://www.irishtimes.com/election2020/dublin-bay-north |archive-date=6 June 2021 }} but was not appointed to cabinet in the Government of the 33rd Dáil.

On 22 July 2020, Bruton was elected chair of the Fine Gael parliamentary party. He served as chair until September 2023, when he was succeeded by Alan Dillon.

On 5 September 2023, he announced that he would not contest the next general election.{{Cite web |date=5 September 2023 |title=Richard Bruton to stand down as Fine Gael TD at next general election |url=https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/richard-bruton-to-stand-down-as-fine-gael-td-at-next-general-election/a605633202.html |access-date=5 September 2023 |website=Independent.ie |language=en}}

{{Reflist|colwidth=33em}}

• {{Official website|richardbruton.ie}}
• [https://www.finegael.ie/our-people/tds/dublin/dublin-bay-north/richard-bruton/ Richard Bruton's page on Fine Gael website]

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{{Dublin North-Central (Dáil constituency)/TDs}}

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{{Members of the 15th Seanad}}

{{24th Government of Ireland}}

{{29th Government of Ireland}}

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{{Ministers for Education of Ireland}}

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