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DR TK WHITAKER, once voted Irishman of the 20th century, has died aged 100.
A man of great vision and integrity, he wrote the blueprint for economic stability and prosperity, Economic Development. It mapped out a path for the country to move from the depressed and stagnant Ireland of 1958 into a modern era of growth and sharing of benefits to all sectors of society.
Just last month, on Dr Whitaker’s 100th birthday, the aide-de-camp of President Michael D Higgins delivered a personal letter to Whitaker at his home in which the President paid tribute to “a century of life” that was “exemplary in every way”.
Thomas Kenneth Whitaker was a civil servant in the very best and original sense of the term. The youngest-ever secretary of the Department of Finance when he had been appointed to the post in 1956 at the age of 39, he and his team laboured long hours, often on their own time, on formulating Economic Development.
The document, known as the ‘Grey Book’, analysed every corner of Ireland’s economic “rut” – from agriculture to tourism to trade – and formed the core of the Programme for Economic Expansion that set out what needed to happen for the country to drag itself out of the mire.
Diligent, tireless
Free trade was at the heart of it, and Dr Whitaker was not just expected to advocate for this radical about-turn in Irish economic thinking but to help deliver on its promises. This he did, diligently and tirelessly, working with Taoiseach Sean Lemass from 1959 to 1966.
Despite his work within the framework of the governments of the day, Dr Whitaker was careful to remain above politics, keeping his work independent of undue influence or interference. He was sensitive to the impact of public utterances and as such, was careful not to comment – neither to condemn nor condone – on the decisions made at a political level.
This impartiality served him well when helping to broker the historic visits of taoisigh Lemass and Jack Lynch to Stormont in 1965 and 1967 respectively. Although his family moved to Drogheda in Co Louth from his birthplace of Rostrevor, Co Down when he was six years old, he remained emotionally invested in the peace process throughout his life and was unstinting in his support of a non-violent resolution.
Intellectual brilliance
‘TK’, or ‘Ken’ to friends and family, came from a modest home and rose through the ranks of the civil service through sheer dint of his intellectual brilliance and hard work. Following his career in the Department of Finance, he went on to become – among other things – Governor of the Central Bank and a founder of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). His negotiation skills served him and the country well time and time again – in securing funding from the Ford Foundation to make the ESRI a reality; in steering Ireland towards membership of the EU.
And although he achieved so much so young, he remained engaged and active in public life long after his so-called retirement.
He was Chancellor of the National University of Ireland for 20 years, a role that was important to a man for whom education had been a lifeline and a passion. As Senator Whitaker, from 1977 to 1982, he was regarded as one of the most valuable contributors to the Seanad, giving erudite and probing speeches and chairing inquiries into the state of the Irish prisons and sentencing systems.
“A contribution”
Despite his long years of public service, he was modest in the face of his achievements, responding to the Irish Times in typical self-effacing fashion two years ago: “I feel I made a contribution.”
In a life so full of professional and public achievement, it is remarkable that he had such generosity of spirit and time for his personal passions – family, an teanga agus an ceol, fishing.
He was passionate about the Irish language, speaking fluently and elegantly as Gaeilge to like-minded friends and colleagues, adding chairmanship of Bord na Gaeilge and the Irish Folklore Commission to the 40-plus bodies, committees and commissions that benefitted from his wisdom and advice over the years.
His great joys
An engaging raconteur, he was also prone to entertaining guests with a powerful rendition of Danny Boy, accompanying his own vocals on piano. One of his great joys was to escape to the west of Ireland for a spot of freshwater fishing, an activity which he enjoyed right up to his 90s.
His greatest store of energy was reserved for his family. Ken Whitaker married Nora Fogarty in 1941. They had six children, Brian, David, Ken Jr, Gerry, Catherine and Raymond. Sadly, TK was predeceased by Gerry and Catherine, and his beloved Nora died in 1994.
He married Mary Moore in 2005 and they had three happy and companionable years together before she passed away in 2008. He spent his 100th birthday at home surrounded by his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
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Can I funnel my tax through Luxembourg?
Yes if you have a Luxemburg registered limited company – however you would need to be very careful regarding legislation in your country of residence (Ireland I assume).
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Basically, what you need is your Irish Limited Company which will employ you and pay a minimum wage and your Luxemburg Limited Company which will invoice the Irish company for services rendered (assign all of your accounting to Luxemburg).
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That’s basically it in a nutshell, but the cost/savings analysis makes it relatively unproductive for a sole trader of services (labour).
… and what about the Journals Luxembourg roots .
we still haven’t got to the bottom of them yet
Sorry, Dave – but what are you talking about??
Don’t take the bait Susan !!
Thanks Frank, but I’ve heard this question a few times (most recently shouted at one of my colleagues as he covered a water charges protest) and I’m trying to get to the bottom of it.
Journal Media Ltd is an independent company which is funded solely by the two brothers, Brian and Eamonn Fallon.
We have never been to Luxembourg, although I believe Dudelange is beautiful this time of year.
Susan, The Journal is an independent company?
With the amount of pro-SF comments, you’d think it was the English language version of An Phoblacht.
By the way, if you use the word “independent” they’ll think it is part of the “billionaire DOB FG donor media empire evil death star” :-)
Ah Susan!!! you are a journalist who claims she wants “to get to the bottom of the Luxembourg links” Tiger Holdings Five SARL should help your stonewalled investigation.
Let me repeat it one more time for you in the back there, Peter.
Journal Media Ltd has zero investment from anyone other than Brian and Eamonn Fallon.
The facts – should you wish them to come in the way of your conspiracy theories – are there in black and white in our company records, publicly available from the CRO. Check them out.
Hi Susan. Looks like he was very much right. Whilst you may never have been to Luxembourg, I think that the owners of your parent company do regularly.
http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/irish-companies-linked-to-further-luxembourg-tax-disclosures-1.1991514
Hi Diarmuid,
The Irish Times is totally erroneous on that score – they have not checked the company records at all. TheJournal.ie has nothing to do with that investment group, and never has been.
We are currently speaking to the Irish Times about a clarification and removal of this false information.
I have no idea why their experienced reporters have not bothered to check the CRO, but if they had, the information would be there for them.
Thanks, Susan
I did point out the parent company connection in my msg to you after my twitter account was somehow no longer able to post comments. At least my name has been cleared as a “conspiracy theorist” and actually someone who knows a bit about the finance/business world. Personally as the Journal is a 100% subsidiary of Distilled Media and it’s Distilled media that has the fund backers in Luxembourg I think the I Times are correct in what they report. But that’s just my take
It absolutely is NOT a subsidiary of Distilled Media – AND the Irish Times have been forced to remove their erroneous reference to TheJournal.ie in that article today.
Check the link you yourself posted, and then stop repeating untrue statements, thanks.
Fat cat wallets getting fatter and households getting shafted.
The mind boggles.
All companies based here should pay here or fcuk off
And who would you work for then?
C’mon Daniel, where will they flock to?
Has anyone found the theme of today’s news ‘Blame Ireland and they’ll take the fall lying down’ it’s time we stood up to the EU and say simply enough is enough.
to be fair, thes corporate tax loopholes should never been created in the first place and the EU should keep the pressure on the gov’t to close all other loopholes and tax anomalies.
How is that ‘to be fair’???
Ireland should have refused to close the Double Irish until there was a written commitment to close tax loopholes throughout Europe.
A worker paying 51% while a corporate paying 2% is ok? Something wrong there. To my knowledge, no other European country (apart from Ireland) allows this. The point was that Adam apparently thinks it’s okay to keep these corporate tax loopholes (which the worker is subsidizing through higher taxes) while new taxes are being imposed on people elsewhere.
ITS,
You have very limited knowledge…
We are the only country that has the lowest effective corporate tax rate in Europe.
ITS,
What are the rates in Cyprus(12.5%), Bulgaria(10%), Macedonia(10%), Montenegro(9%)….
And while we are talking about other peoples money….
We tax our poorest the lowest and our richest some of the highest…
http://www.taxinstitute.ie/Portals/0/Effective%20Income%20Tax%20Rates%20Ireland%20v%207%20competitor%20countries.pdf
Ah, here now, Cowboy Ted, don’t you know the comments section is not the place to bring up facts. It is, rather, the place to bring up all sorts of made up stuff starting with “I’m sure…”, and “probably….”.
Go and take your well researched facts somewhere else, please. Honestly, the nerve of some people.
Sorry Chin, will never do it again…
Feel stupid now, Didn’t know actual popular opinion…
So how do corporations pay effective 2% corporation tax in Ireland? There are Irish tax loopholes that were created by successive governments. These are the problem – not other countries. Therefore, the EU (and others) should keep the pressure on this government to bring these into line with other countries.
Transfer pricing, Patent Royalties, Subsidiary rules should be changed, to name a few. A corporation setting up in Ireland for “R&D” purposes gets a tax break – something very wrong with the Irish tax code.
Just read that report Cowboy Ted, Cowboy is right. The report only compares to “competitor” countries. Ie. Hand picked countries designed to fabricate a point. This report has all the hallmarks of bias and cherry picking of stats
Thank you for telling us journal investigating team. Good work there.
We already know companies avoid tax in perfectly legal ways and perhaps it is more than time to change the legal system.
People paying taxes is so much easier for the rich and they should not be having tax relief but the poorer sections of communities should.
I think this pursuit of money, this wild greed has become worse than ever and these people have no conscience for what they do is at the expense of others where a very small amount of money is critical.
These miserly hoarders could not even touch the interest in 500 lifetimes….are they ill with greed?
It’s an AFP article.
What hate i about this is very few out ther beleave or see the con we living,
We are all working our backs off paying taxes, all long side other chagers.
Our govermets say we need the money to pay for & improve services.
This a con so these big compaines don’t have to pay up.
We need to forget water protest we need.
FAIRER TAX PROTEST
If these compaines paid just a little more, over night our whole country could have better health care, water, education, quailty of life ect….
All of us workers wheater you student, middle class worker, or earning a bit more.
All our tax rates could be cut, thus releaseing more free money into our economy which would help make more jobs, reduce crime, sucides, stress. And goverments, bankers, big corps would still make.
But no it cant be cause the modren world dose like a fairer system.
Maybe some day if more people relize…
JustMade, what was that? Something about tax, blah, blah. Too many spelling and grammar errors, almost impossible to read.
This is why spelling is important.
So what is your life that pathetic like so many out that you have to troll the internet to pick on someone with a learning disable, “ just to make yourself sound important.
Would you say to someone who cant walk properly, this is why walking is important!!
Burned!
JustMade, you see? You can spell correctly when you make an effort. It’s not that difficult, especially with modern technology.
Owned.ie
Don’t tell the French government
Don’t tell the vested interests who oppose paying their fair share of tax.
This is why Ireland should support tax harmonisation in Europe and financial transaction taxes.Even the 12.5% was too onerous for these corpoations understandably as a corporations only motivation (despite p.r. guff about corporate citizenship etc) is profit.they must be strictly controlled by governments or we become slaves to them.
To late. We are slaves to them already.
Tax harmonisation simply does not work when you have so many varied economies. The idea of currency harmonisation has already proven to be a bust as the EU has so many different economies with their own strengths and weaknesses.
Tax harmonization is a good idea because it would mean more money for public services when corporates have nowhere to hide. It would also enable better health services, social programs, road building, public transport, etc.
Buy Irish, support Irish jobs. Love Irish food! Thank you for supporting Irish. Now we are going to filter the money through Luxembourg to avoid paying tax in Ireland. Thank you. Glanbia.
The keyword in the article is legal
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