By Business & Finance 
John Bruton, former Taoiseach and key figure in Ireland’s path to peace, is to be honoured posthumously with the Pádraig Ó hUiginn Award at the 2024 Business & Finance FS Awards, in association with KPMG
The Business & Finance FS Awards recognises excellence across the Financial Services sector. The 2024 ceremony will take place on Thursday, 24th October at The Mansion House, Dublin.
The Padraig Ó hUiginn Award, named for the late former Secretary General at the Department of the Taoiseach, honours an individual’s outstanding contribution to Financial Services.
For more information, please contact brian.kearns@businessandfinance.com
John Bruton
This year’s honouree is John Bruton, a former Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach between the years 1994 and 1997.
Born in 1947 in Dunboyne, Meath, Bruton was educated at Clongowes Wood College and would later receive a Bachelor of Arts degree from University College Dublin. He studied Law at King’s Inns in Dublin, qualifying as a barrister in 1970.
He joined Fine Gael in 1965, when the party was under the leadership of Liam Cosgrave. He was elected to Dáil Éireann in 1969, representing his home county as TD for Meath. At age 22, he was one of the youngest members of the Dáil.
Later, as a government minister, he held numerous positions within successive Dáil terms, including Minister for Industry and Energy, Minister for Industry, Trade, Commerce and Tourism, Minister for Finance, and Minister for the Public Service.
He became leader of Fine Gael in November, 1990, succeeding Alan Dukes. Following the collapse of the Fianna Fáil–Labour government in 1994, he became Taoiseach when his party negotiated a coalition deal with the Labour Party and Democratic Left. At the age of 47, Bruton became the youngest Taoiseach to govern the country at the time.
His tenure as Taoiseach is defined by significant developments in the Northern Ireland Peace Process. In February 1995, he collaborated with British Prime Minister John Major to launch the Anglo-Irish ‘Framework Document’, which outlined new proposed relations between Ireland, Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Bruton’s coalition remained to contest the 1997 elections, which were indecisive. He served as acting Taoiseach until the Dáil convened in late June and elected a Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrats government. He retired from Irish politics in 2004 and served as the ambassador of the European Union to the United States (2004–2009).
John Bruton died aged 76 on 6 February 2024 at the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin.
Pádraig Ó hUiginn
Senior Civil servant, Padraig Ó hUiginn, had a fifty-year career in the Civil Service before retiring in 1993.
He entered the civil service in 1941 and served for over fifty years where he was innovative in his endeavours to progress social and economical change and to capture and utilise opportunities for the benefit of all. His name is synonymous with the creation and driving high profile initiatives such as the IFSC, Temple Bar, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), but he is perhaps best remembered for his role as Secretary General of the Department of The Taoiseach, a position he held from 1982-1993.
In addition to his secretary general role, Ó hUiginn also served as economic affairs officer, UN Economic Commission in Geneva; was officer-in-charge of Housing, Planning and Building at the UN Headquarters in New York; and was director for Regional Policy and deputy director general for Energy, Science and Technology at the EC Council of Ministers in Brussels.
After he left the civil service he experienced success in the private sector, most notably through his involvement as a director of Denis O’Brien’s Esat Telecom, which was taken over by British Telecom in 2000. He died in 2019 aged 94 years.
Previous Honourees
Former Secretary General of the European Commission, Catherine Day, was recognised with the Pádraig Ó hUiginn Outstanding Award at the Business & Finance FS Awards 2023.
Day held her post from 2005 to 2015, and was the first woman in the role. Prior to her appointment as Secretary General, she was Director General for Environment. She worked on the future enlargement of the EU in the 1990s and was one of the architects of the pre-accession process for the countries of central and eastern Europe.
Day worked in the Cabinets of Commissioners Richard Burke, Peter Sutherland and Leon Brittan and joined the European Commission in 1979.
The inaugural recipient of the Padraig Ó hUiginn Award was former Minister for Finance Michael Noonan in 2022. Michael Noonan was first elected to the Dail in 1981 and has held a number of senior cabinet positions including leader of Fine Gael between February 2001 and May 2002. He represented the constituency of Limerick City.
The Fine Gael politician became Minister for Finance in 2011 and was re-appointed on 6 May 2014 before finally stepping down in 2017. Credited as one of Europe’s most experienced finance ministers, he oversaw Ireland’s financial crisis and subsequent recovery. It was he who implemented the post-crisis austerity measures as stipulated by the EU and the International Monetary Fund. Ireland’s economy recovered to become the fastest-growing economy in the eurozone for a number of years.
He was Minister for Justice between 1982 and 1986 and held two different ministerial posts between 1986 and 1987, that of Minister for Industry, Commerce and Trade and Minister for Energy respectively. He was Minister for Health between 1994 and 1997, and has also served as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.
FS Awards
The FS Awards 2024 will take place on October 24th 2024 in the Round Room of The Mansion House, Dublin.
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