Mervyn was an exceptionally talented public representative

Following the passing of Mervyn Taylor, former Energy Minister and Dublin South West TD Pat Rabbitte remembers his Labour colleague, friend and rival.

The passing of Mervyn Taylor in his ninetieth year recalls his many years of public service as Labour councillor, TD and minister.

He was an exceptionally talented public representative who was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 1981.

In his final Dáil term he became Minister for Equality and Law Reform (1992-97) and left an enduring legacy of reform.

He ran a remarkable constituency service where his constituents got priority.

He was in at the birth of Tallaght when residents’ associations, sporting clubs and community organisations learned to rely on his expertise to draw up their rules and constitutional procedures.

We were good friends and fierce rivals. Politically speaking, we grew up with Tallaght. There was no hospital, no Square, no Institute of Technology, no Luas – a poor bus service, inadequate public lighting and no footpaths across open spaces.

Community participation was energising but also ferociously demanding.

Three nights a week at public meetings was routine and people were intolerant if preference had to be given to Dáil attendance.

These were often high-octane meetings not for the faint-hearted. For example, holding the line for minimally decent accommodation for Traveller families was very unpopular and hugely contentious.

This constituency background allied to his professional experience as a lawyer meant that he was eminently equipped for the newly created post of Minister for Equality and Reform.

He introduced a number of legislative reforms but will be most remembered for having successfully steered divorce through a contentious referendum and then through both Houses of the Oireachtas.

It is seldom remembered now that the referendum passed by a mere nine thousand votes, having been resoundingly rejected a decade earlier.

“I am told that my grandfatherly image with pipe and slippers had a reassuring impact” he told me later. He was joking but the remark contained a large measure of truth.

We sat beside each other in cabinet where his wry commentary on some of our more voluble colleagues belied his aloof demeanour.

He declined a cabinet request to chair a committee on the misuse of drugs and proposed that I should undertake the task.

He was especially helpful in my subsequent battle to win financial backing to implement the recommendations of that report.

Before his election to the Dáil he served as chairperson of the Labour Party at a time when the Labour family was more fractious than ever. It can be accurately said that he made a significant contribution.