The former Fine Gael TD, Minister and MEP, Mr Mark Clinton, has died. He was 86 and died peacefully at Lucan Lodge Nursing Home yesterday.
He was born at Moynalty, Kells, Co Meath in February 1915, the fourth son of a farmer. He studied agriculture and worked as a farm manager while involving himself in politics.
He was first elected to the Dβil in 1961 and came to national prominence as minister for agriculture in the 1974 Fine Gael/Labour coalition, There he presided over a revolution in Irish agriculture. He was deeply involved in negotiations on EEC farm prices and a staunch defender of the Common Agricultural Policy against its critics in other EEC member states.
When Fine Gael lost the next election in 197 Mr Clinton indicated he did not wish to be nominated a spokesman under the new leadership of Mr Garret FitzGerald.
However, he had a new lease of political life as a member of the European Parliament, where he was one of the first directly elected representatives and argued trenchantly in favour of the Common Agricultural Policy. In 1984 he retained his European seat. He is survived by his wife Dorothy and six of their seven children.