Tributes paid after death of former attorney general

FORMER attorney general Rory Brady who died yesterday was described by ex-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern as his most trusted Cabinet colleague.

The Dubliner held the country’s most senior non-judicial legal post with the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrat Government that served between 2002 and 2007. He was 52 and had been seriously ill.

Among his most prominent work while the state’s chief law officer was the legal framework for the smoking ban introduced in 2004 and the design of laws that led to the introduction of mandatory breath testing for drink driving. He was the driver of the regulations that ensure key international soccer and rugby fixtures remain free-to-air on television and took the unusual step of representing Ireland personally in international courts, notably in The Hague in a matter concerning the Sellafield nuclear power plant.