Sir, – Lest there be any misunderstanding from Seán Ó Cuinn’s letter (March 15th), I’d like to clarify that TK Whitaker was appointed secretary of the Department of Finance in 1956 by John A Costello, and not Seán Lemass.
Mr Whitaker had already prepared most of the work that became the “Grey Book” for the First Programme for Economic Expansion. Certainly Mr Lemass deserves credit for retaining Mr Whitaker, and not replacing him with “one of the lads”. It’s quite certain that the Inter Party government, had it been returned again in 1957, would have implemented the same reforms as Mr Lemass, in fact, its reforms would have probably been even deeper.
John A Costello gets little enough credit for the things he did right. So the least he deserves is some credit for having the foresight to see something different in Mr Whitaker and to take the leap of faith required to promote him at such a young age. – Yours, etc,