The President is leading tributes to TK Whitaker, following his death at the age of 100.
Michael D Higgins says ‘he was as inspiring as he was impressive, and as fine an Irishman as there has been’, while Taoiseach Enda Kenny has described him as a ‘national treasure’.
Mr Whitaker was best known for his groundbreaking work as head of the Department of Finance – which paved the way for Ireland’s economic expansion in the 1960’s.
It is rare for a civil servant and economist to be so well known that they would once be voted as their country’s greatest person of the century. But that was the high esteem in which Thomas Kenneth Whitaker was held.
An early entrant in to the civil service, he was appointed secretary of the Department of Finance in 1959 – at a time of rampant emigration, poor living standards, and negligable growth.
Whitaker broke new ground in imagining a more vibrant and competitive Ireland, and put forward the legendary ‘Grey Book’ – Ireland’s first ‘programme for economic development’. The policies were enthusiastically adopted by Taoiseach Sean Lemass, and Ireland soon flourished.
Such was his contribution that Taoisigh from both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael gave him appointments to the Seanad – and later in life he served as a director of the National Gallery, and the heads of the National University and Royal Irish Academy.
In 2001 the public voted TK Whitaker Irishman of the 20th Century. Two years ago he joked to the Irish Times, “I feel I made a contribution.”
