Terry Stewart:TERRY STEWART, who has died aged 77, was a former head of representation of the European Commission in Ireland and director of the social affairs directorate-general of the EC. He previously worked as a civil servant and in tourism and industrial development.
His posting to Ireland (1986-1993) coincided with the most intense engagement between Dublin and Brussels. It covered the referendum on the Single European Act, called after the Supreme Court found it unconstitutional in the Crotty verdict, during which Stewart persuaded the political parties that they should campaign on the issue.
Its passage in 1987 was followed by negotiations on the Delors I package of structural funds and preparation of the national development plan to implement them.
This drew in the major government departments and their ministers, along with key commission officials, Irish commissioners Peter Sutherland and Ray MacSharry and Ireland’s permanent representation in Brussels. As a result the funds flowing to Ireland were doubled, a crucial investment stimulus coinciding with budget cuts in other sectors.
Stewart’s legendary networking skills contributed greatly to that success, and in preparing for the strategically important Irish presidency of the European Community in the first half of 1990. His role in preparing the Delors II package linked to cohesion funds to prepare for economic and monetary union following the Maastricht Treaty in 1991 was similarly important.
From a Belfast family with a tradition of public service, Stewart was born in 1934. The family home in the Whitewell Road area was damaged in an air raid by the Luftwaffe in 1941, and the family moved to a cottage in the country until 1945.
He attended St Malachy’s College before joining the ministry of commerce in 1952. He studied by night at Queen’s University Belfast and secured a degree in economics.
He spent 12 years in the civil service, and also lectured at Queen’s, developing a special interest in economics and tourism. The last minister under whom he worked was Brian Faulkner, who subsequently led the first, albeit short-lived, powersharing administration in Northern Ireland.
In the mid-1960s Stewart was appointed manager of Ivernia, the southern regional tourism organisation based in Cork. In 1969 he became investment manager of Gaeltarra Éireann, the body responsible for economic development in Gaeltacht areas, and moved to Galway.
He looked after the shareholding and development sides until 1972, when the two were separated and he became industrial development director, with additional responsibility for research and development, the highly successful Comórtas Forbartha Pobail and EEC relations.
In 1976 he was seconded to Brussels to work as an administrator of the EU social funds, and three years later was appointed on a permanent basis.
He worked with the transport directorate-general until 1986, when he was appointed head of the European Commission information office in Dublin.
He said his intention was to ensure that the office was known as the Irish office of the commission, and not the Dublin office. He pledged to travel the country, talking to people about Europe.
He chaired proceedings of the MacGill summer school in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1992 he urged that the argument for local involvement in the allocation of EU structural funds should not obscure national priorities. Dublin, he pointed out, had received least from the structural funds in per capita terms.
Promotion followed in 1993 and he returned to Brussels to advise on social affairs. In 1994 he was appointed a director of the social affairs directorate-general with responsibility for dealing with social exclusion, social policy research, the Helios programme for the disabled as well as information policy.
On retiring from the commission, he returned to Dublin and took up the part-time post of director general of the Institute of European Affairs, the policy research organisation. He retired from the position in 1999 but remained vice-chairman of its executive.
Stewart was very much a people person, known for his sharp intelligence and warm personality. Throughout his life he maintained a wide range of friendships and contacts spanning professional, private and family interests.
His passion for historical studies, good French wine, golf, rugby and soccer, travelling and maintaining family contacts kept him busy in retirement, which effectively was only part-time because of his continuing interest and involvement in Ireland’s European policies.
Predeceased by his son David, he is survived by his wife Ann (née Hudson) and sons Niall and Brian.
John Terence (Terry) Stewart: born January, 1934; died April 8th, 2011