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T. K. Whitaker

1916–2017

 

When the full history of Ireland in the second half of the twentieth century is written, the name of T.K. Whitaker will be given a special place of honour.  Yet his entire life was passed as a public servant in the employment of the government.

      Thomas Kenneth Whitaker was born in Drogheda on 8th December 1916, the son of Edward Whitaker and his wife Jane, soon after the Easter Rising.  He was educated by the Christian Brothers in Drogheda.  After school, he joined the Irish Civil Service, then almost the only route to success for the intelligent in Ireland.  While in the civil service he took a bachelor's of science and a master's of science as an external student at London University.  Eventually, he rose to become secretary of the Department of Finance, in 1956.  Here he was given the lead in drawing up the plan for the economic development of Ireland, published by the government in 1958, to which the present prosperity of Ireland can be traced back.

      Though Ireland was an open democracy, at independence in 1922 it was not a rich country.  Though there were large brewing and distilling interests, there was very little other industry because the country lacked capital.  Under the governments of both WILLIAM COSGRAVE [56] and EAMON DE VALERA [2], much emphasis was placed on agricultural and rural development.  Keeping people on the land was a major priority, but it became clear that many people were still emigrating or leaving the country to live in the city.  To retain these young people and to provide new jobs in the cities, especially in Dublin, which was rapidly becoming the country's major population centre, remedies had to be found, and they could not be obtained merely from private resources.  So in Ireland a form of benign state intervention arose in which much capital investment came directly from the state.  The blue book on economic development laid out the criteria through which the Irish economy would be planned.  It allowed for the creation of the Industrial Development Authority, which funded the building of factories in specific locations and encouraged foreign and Irish manufacturers to make use of them.  These were largely placed for social reasons, but Ireland had many attractions for foreign investors, which have become increasingly important since the computer revolution.  Today there is a large, socially fluid, well-educated, English-speaking pool of labour which has proved to be both diligent and flexible.

      In the 1990s, Ireland came to be seen as the 'Celtic Tiger'.  Indeed, its prosperity has carried it to twenty-first place among the industrial nations, and in many ways its development eclipses those of some Far East economies, since it is not founded on a disguised sweatshop economy.  These astonishing triumphs in a country like Ireland, with a long-standing image of famine, poverty, and disorder, are a political and social triumph of the first order.

      This success is due in large measure to the foresight, good sense, and perception of T.K. Whitaker, but it also emphasizes how lucky Ireland was to have civil servants like him.  When Ireland gained its independence, it inherited a civil service system from the previous British administration.  Some civil servants retired, but many stayed on; others were recruited.  There were stiff exams to enter the service, and in the decades up to the 1960s the perception was that the best jobs were not in industry or business but in government service.

      The cream of the country's talents entered the civil service, so much so that the number of poets, playwrights, and historians in the service was astounding.  Like all civil services, it has its problems of delay and bungling, but it also has great reserves of intellectual power.  And it was these that resulted in the Whitaker regime.

      This notion of disinterested public service was of immense value to the country.  When other countries in Africa and Asia gained their independence, it could be seen that without this kind of well-paid and highly motivated civil service, corruption and tyranny soon took over.  Ireland developed as a democracy thanks to men of integrity like T.K. Whitaker.

      Today, Ireland's capital base has expanded, and investment can be made with less government intervention.  But the state socialism of the Whitaker era served Ireland well, and the influence of his ideas pervades the whole of Irish life to this day.

      When Whitaker retired from the civil service it did not mean more time for his interests of fishing, golf, and music.  He became a governor of the Central Bank of Ireland from 1969 to 1976.  He was also a director of the brewers Arthur Guinness, of an Bord Gaeilge, and the Agency for Service Overseas (Ireland's Peace Corps).  Among the final distinctions paid him was his election as chancellor of the National University of Ireland, a post which had once been filled by de Valera.

      From 1977 to 1982 Whitaker was a member of the Irish Senate.  Other honours include membership in the Council of State, chairman of the Constitution Review Board, and president of the Royal Irish Academy.  He has also received many honorary degrees for his service to the community.