Mr Whitaker and industry: setting the record straight – a reply to Barry and Daly

Abstract

The turnaround in economic policy from the late 1950s was remarkable. Protectionism was abandoned and exporting incentivised. As Barry and Daly (2011) admit, 'Conventional wisdom accords the bulk of the credit for the turnaround in policy to Seán Lemass, Minister for Industry and Commerce in most Fianna Fáil governments since 1932 and Taoiseach from 1959 to 1966, and T. K. Whitaker, Secretary of the Department of Finance from 1956 to 1969.' Their main agenda is to set the record straight about the role of Mr. Whitakerin this historical turnaround in economic policy in Ireland. Their bottom line: Conventional wisdom is wrong. They attempt to illustrate this through a critique of our Walsh and Whelan (2010) paper. In our response to their paper we wish to address three issues. First, outline the real essence of our paper; secondly defend our analytical frameworks; and finally, place their new thesis on the role of Whitaker in economic policy during the “long 1950s” in the context of our paper and mainstream beliefs.