Charles Haughey - Political Return

Political Return

In 1975 Fianna Fáil was in opposition and Haughey had achieved enough grassroots support to warrant a recall to Jack Lynch's opposition Bench. At the time Lynch was harshly criticised in the media for this. Haughey was appointed Spokesman on Health and Social Welfare, a fairly minor portfolio at the time, but Haughey used the same imagination and skill he displayed in other positions to formulate innovative and far reaching policies. Two years later in 1977 Fianna Fáil returned to power with a massive parliamentary majority in Dáil Éireann, having had a very populist campaign (spearhead by Colley and O'Malley) to abolish rates, vehicle tax and other extraordinary concessions, which were short-lived. Haughey returned to the Cabinet after an absence of seven years as Minister for Health and Social Welfare.

In this position he continued the progressive policies he had shown earlier by, among others, beginning the first government anti-smoking campaigns and legalising contraception, previously banned. Following the finding by the Supreme Court in McGee v The Attorney General that there was a constitutional right to use contraceptives, he introduced The Family Planning Bill which proved to be highly controversial. The bill allowed a pharmacist to sell contraceptives on presentation of a medical prescription. Haughey called this bill "an Irish solution to an Irish problem". It is often stated that the recipient of the prescription had to be married, but the legislation did not include this requirement.

It was also during this period that Lynch began to lose his grip on the party, the economy faltered in the aftermath of energy crises and the fallout from the giveaway concessions that had re-elected the government under Lynch, led to a succession race to succeed Lynch. As well as this a group of backbenchers began to lobby in support of Haughey. This group, known as the "gang of five," consisted of Jackie Fahey, Tom McEllistrim, Seán Doherty, Mark Killilea, Jnr and Albert Reynolds. Haughey was also helped by the TD Síle de Valera. The granddaughter of Éamon de Valera, she was highly critical of Jack Lynch's policy regards the North. In a speech at the Liam Lynch commemoration at Fermoy on the 9th of September, de Valera made a series of thinly veiled attacks on Lynch. Although Lynch quickly tried to impose party discipline, attempting to discipline her for opposing party policy at a parliamentary party meeting held at the 28th, de Valera correctly pointed out that she had not opposed the party policy regarding the North which called for the declaration of the British intent to withdraw from the north. Lynch left for a trip to the United States on the 7th of November. On the same day the government lost two by-elections to Fine Gael in Cork City and in Cork North–East. During the trip Lynch claimed in an interview with the Washington Post that a five-kilometer air corridor between the border was agreed upon during the meeting with Thatcher to enhance security co-operation This was something highly unsavoury to many in Fianna Fáil. When Lynch returned he was questioned on this by a Clare backbencher Bill Loughnane along with Tom McEllistrim at a parliamentary party meeting. Lynch stated that the British did not have permission to overfly the border. Afterwards Loughnane went public with the details of the meeting and accused Lynch of deliberately misleading the party. An attempt to remove the whip from Loughnane failed. At this stage Lynch's position had become untenable, with supporters of Haughey and George Colley caucusing opinion within the party.

In December 1979 Lynch announced his resignation as Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil. The leadership contest that resulted was a two-horse race between Haughey and the Tánaiste, George Colley. Colley had the support of the entire Cabinet, with the exception of Michael O'Kennedy, and felt that this popularity would be reflected within the parliamentary party as a whole.

Haughey on the other hand was distrusted by a number of his Cabinet colleagues but was much more respected by new backbenchers who were worried about the safety of their Dáil seats. When the vote was taken Haughey emerged as the victor by a margin of 44 votes to 38, a very clear division within the party. In a conciliatory gesture, Colley was re-appointed as Tánaiste and had a veto over who Haughey would appoint as Ministers for Justice and Defence respectively. This was due to his distrust of Haughey on security issues (i.e. Arms Crisis). However, he was removed from the important position of Minister for Finance.

Nonetheless, on 11 December 1979, Charles Haughey was elected Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil, almost a decade after the Arms Crisis nearly destroyed his political career. In 2010, a founder of the Saatchi & Saatchi advertising firm, said that Haughey had asked for a ‘a new image’ similar to the one provided for Margaret Thatcher for the 1979 general election.