Madam, - The well-deserved tributes to Dr Patrick Hillery have highlighted his work as vice-president of the European Commission from 1973 to 1976. The scale, and long-term beneficial outcomes, of his contribution to European social policy have too often been underestimated.
I first met Dr Hillery in September 1973 when he visited Brendan Corish and Frank Cluskey, for whom I worked as special adviser, to seek Irish support for his wide-ranging proposals for the first EEC Social Action Programme. The programme covered not only the crucial series of initiatives on equal treatment for women in pay, employment and social welfare, but proposals on vocational training and retraining, health and safety at work, social protection and involvement of the social partners.
Of great importance were the proposed policies for the social integration of persons with handicaps. And, on a specific proposal from Frank Cluskey, the programme contained the basis of an EEC scheme of specific measures to combat poverty.
Within weeks of this meeting, and as Dr Hillery pressed ahead with his proposals, the world was hit by the first oil crisis of the 1970s. As the EEC plunged into deep economic and political trauma the whole concept of social policy development was imperilled. Here the quiet determination and persuasiveness of Dr Hillery was critical. He insisted on maintaining his schedule of consultations leading to an extraordinary Social Affairs Council meeting on December 11th and 12th during which the Danish Presidency learned in mid-afternoon that its government had been defeated in parliament on the issue of rocketing petrol prices. Through a long day and deep into the night the Commission vice-president used all his unique political and interpersonal skills to steer the Social Action Programme through to adoption at 3.34am.
The work of those busy months in 1973 have left us a legacy of progressive social legislation - above all, equal pay for men and women - and influential institutions ranging from the European Vocational Training Centre and the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (with headquarters at Leopardstown) to the European Trade Union Institute and, indirectly, Ireland's Combat Poverty Agency.
This country, and the European Union as a whole, owe a great deal to Dr Hillery, who set the standard for Ireland's work in the European institutions and clearly demonstrated that Irish patriotism and European commitment were, and will remain, entirely compatible. - Yours, etc,
TONY BROWN,
Bettyglen,
Raheny,
Dublin 5.