biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1947– )
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| biography:
| Irish statesman and prime minister (1994–7), born in Dublin, Ireland. He studied economics under Garret FitzGerald at University College Dublin. When only 22, he was elected to the Dáil Éireann in 1969. He became minister of finance in FitzGerald's first administration (1981–2), and tried unsuccessfully to solve Ireland's public finance crisis by raising taxation. In FitzGerald's second coalition (1983–7) Bruton was reappointed to the finance portfolio (1986). He was leader of Fine Gael (1990–2001). In 1994, he formed a coalition with the Labour and Democratic Left parties. He maintained the momentum of the Northern Ireland peace process, producing with British prime minister John Major a joint framework document to set up all-party talks and the decommissioning of terrorist arms (1995). Bruton urged the IRA to resume its ceasefire after the renewed outbreak of Republican terrorism in 1996. His government lost the general election in 1997 in favour of a Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrat coalition. |
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