Is it time to acknowledge the legislative achievements of Charles Haughey?

Irish Times

14 hours ago

Approaching the centenary of his birth in September, and 60 years after the passing of the Succession Act in 1965, is it time to give greater credit to the legislative record of
Charles Haughey
?
As minister for justice from 1961-1964, Haughey, still in his 30s, introduced ground-breaking legislation that would change lives.
It included the Criminal Justice Act, 1964, which abolished the death penalty with exceptions retained for killing gardaí, prison officers and diplomats. These exceptions were removed in 1990 when Haughey was taoiseach. He also introduced the Adoption Act, 1964, which built on the 1952 Adoption Act and emphasised the rights of the child and the birth mother.
And it was Haughey who introduced the Succession Bill in 1964 before becoming minister for agriculture later that year. His successor as minister for justice, Brian Lenihan snr, saw the Bill through the Oireachtas in 1965.
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The resulting Succession Act entitles a surviving spouse to a portion of the estate of the deceased spouse, whether or not a will exists.
If there is no will, the surviving spouse is entitled to the whole estate if there are no children or two-thirds of the estate if there are children while the children receive one-third. Even if there is a will, the surviving spouse is entitled to half the estate if there are no children and one-third if there are children. The Act marked a giant leap forward in family life and law.
Before the Succession Act, it was possible for one spouse to exclude the other from benefiting from his estate. For example, a man could leave his farm to a male relative without making any provision for his widow.
The old days of cutting the wife off without a shilling or threatening that if she remarried she would have to give up her life tenancy ... that kind of thing is all gone
—
Pat Lindsay, former TD in his book Memories
In seeking a solution to this problem, Haughey was assisted by outstanding civil servants including Roger Hayes and Paddy Terry. They provided invaluable help, which he acknowledged.
Another factor that prompted Haughey to introduce the Succession Bill was the large amount of money, sometimes even a farm, being left to the church while widows were neglected. Patrick Hillery, later president of Ireland, had encountered this phenomenon in the course of his medical practice in Co Clare.
Pat Lindsay, a lawyer and a
Fine Gael
Dáil deputy at the time the Act was passed, observed in his book Memories how since the passing of the Act 'the old days of cutting the wife off without a shilling or threatening that if she remarried she would have to give up her life tenancy ... that kind of thing is all gone'.
But opposition came from Fine Gael in the Dáil and the Seanad and in its document The Just Society, published in the same year as the Succession Act was passed. In that document, a section dealing with a proposed law reform programme stated that 'such follies as
Fianna Fáil's
Succession Bill will find no place in such a programme', although it did say that the rights of widows and dependent children would be protected.
In Dáil debates, former taoiseach
John A Costello
, father of Declan Costello, originator of The Just Society document, praised many aspects of the Bill. He pointed to situations where, under prevailing conditions, wives were 'badly treated'. However, future taoiseach
Garret FitzGerald
opposed the Bill in the Seanad.
Haughey had personal insight into the possible plight of widows. He was 22 in 1947 when his father died, aged 49, leaving a widow and seven children. Haughey's sister, Ethna, recalled how Cathal, as he was known in the family, phoned their mother regularly when she returned from early-morning Mass.
The Succession Act came late for many, not only widows. In 1936, Osmond Esmonde contested his father's will in which his father, Thomas, had left his entire estate to his second wife. Following a lengthy court hearing, the court opted in favour of Osmond's stepmother. Not a shilling for the only surviving son.
In 2023, the
Law Reform Commission
published a review of the Succession Act. A number of changes had taken place since 1965, including the Status of Children Act, 1987, which abolished the concept of illegitimacy. This was of major importance.
But the Succession Act, 1965, remains Haughey's legislative innovation.
Dr Finola Kennedy was lecturer in economics at UCD when appointed to the Second Commission on the Status of Women set up by Charles Haughey