Remembering Garret FitzGerald (views of Tom Ferris, FCILT)
It is fitting that the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport should acknowledge the birth of Dr. Garret FitzGerald 100 years ago on 9 February 1926. Garret was made an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) in October 2008. Up until last year Garret Fitzgerald was the only recipient of an Honorary Fellowship of the Institute. This exclusive honour is reserved for those who have made an extraordinary contribution to Logistics and Transport.
Dr. FitzGerald had distinguished careers in transport, economic consultancy, university lecturing, journalism, politics and business. He has made an enormous contribution to public life, both in Ireland and abroad, in a career which displayed the highest standards of service, integrity and honour. He also contributed to and shaped thinking and critical analysis in many areas in his roles as an academic, communicator, politician, Minister, and Taoiseach. Throughout his wide-ranging career he kept a strong interest in transport issues with lectures, articles and papers. And of course, his time working in Aer Lingus demonstrated his agility in organizing timetables; something he also enjoyed doing in other modes of transport.
Garret’s transport links go back to the early days of the CILT in Ireland. Gerald records that “In 1953 I sat for the associate membership examination…which I passed…Later I became secretary, and then chairman of the Irish Section”. Furthermore, he pointed out that he was lecturing part-time in the economics of transport at Rathmines School of Commerce, and by 1956 he was also doing so at his own college, UCD.
Garret addressed our Institute on at least three main occasions. There may have more; if so, I know that CILTI would be pleased to hear of them. But back to the main occasions of contact with the CILT - first, as Taoiseach, he took time out from his busy schedule to address the Eastern Section of the Institute in April 1986. I was honoured to welcome him as Chair of the Eastern Section on that occasion. In a wide-ranging speech, Garret touched on most of the transport issues of the day, including topical shipping issues. Second, when Neil Kinnock, EU Commissioner for Transport gave the CIT International paper in May 1995, Garret very kindly gave the Vote of Thanks. After honouring Neil Kinnock, he argued that the EU should revise its Trans-European Network Project to address Ireland's peripheral challenges. He emphasised that the exclusion of shipping from TENs did nothing for linkage problems of an island nation. The third occasion was in March 2007, when Garret gave the Jim Crowley Memorial Lecture with a detailed review of Transport 21, the Government’s transport investment plan. While he acknowledged the need for significant transport investment, he regretted that the Government had ignored the ESRI’s advice to cut-back the scale of the National Development Plan to 2013 by 15%, to ward off inflationary pressures, postponing some investments to the years 2014 to 2016. Garret argued that, if the ESRI advice were taken– “...this would not significantly affect the timing of the proposed transport investment – for only non-transport spending would be postponed”.
The word retirement never entered Garret’s vocabulary. He continued into his 80s as Chancellor of the National University of Ireland. Other roles included acting as President of the Institute of International and European Affairs and Honorary President of European Movement Ireland. At the same time, he manages to continue to write his regular column for The Irish Times for many years. A busy man by any measure. CILT recognises his contributions on the 100th anniversary of his birth.