Lenihan should not be written off in leadership race
Born into a family of Fianna Fáil heavyweights, he is the grandson, son, nephew and brother of four former and serving TDs.
Given such a lineage, it was no surprise that Lenihan was to climb to the top of the political ladder.
His father, the late Brian Lenihan Snr — whose Dáil seat he inherited in a 1996 Dublin West by-election — was Tánaiste to Charles Haughey and a cabinet minister for more than 25 years.
His aunt Mary O’Rourke was deputy leader to former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, while his brother Conor Lenihan is the current science minister.
Academically, Lenihan stood out, firstly at Trinity where he studied law and later at Cambridge where he received a first-class honours degree in law.
Although a TD since 1996, Lenihan was initially left in the wilderness by Bertie Ahern. Although he was Lenihan senior’s campaign manager in the 1990 presidential election, Ahern was in no rush to promote Lenihan Jnr.
He gave him the relatively junior position of Minister for Children between 2002 and 2007, before finally elevating him to Minister for Justice.
But Ahern’s successor, Brian Cowen, was much closer to Lenihan, and had no hesitation in handing him the plum job of Minister for Finance when naming his first cabinet in 2008. Given the travails that were to follow, however, it proved a poisoned chalice, with his tenure dominated by crisis.
Unveiling three harsh budgets in 14 months, along with the most austere in the state’s history last December, Lenihan has become synonymous with the now infamous bank guarantee, the creation of NAMA and the €85 billion EU-IMF bailout.
Unsurprisingly, none of this has endeared him or his party to a public forced to pay for the banks’ bad debts while facing years of public spending cuts and tax hikes.
Last month, the Financial Times ranked Lenihan as the worst finance minister in the eurozone, the second year running he received the unfortunate honour.
While grappling with the worst economic crisis in the state’s history, Lenihan has also had to battle with his own health issues, after being diagnosed in 2009 with pancreatic cancer. He has been widely praised for his dignity in battling the disease.
In terms of the leadership battle, he appears to have been outmanoeuvred by his rival Micheál Martin in recent days, but could very quickly make up lost ground in terms of winning TDs — particularly Dublin- based ones — to his side.
Married to circuit court judge Patricia Ryan, the couple have a son and a daughter.
