Tributes have been paid to the former European commissioner and government minister Richard Burke who has died at the age of 83.
Mr Burke served two terms as a European Commissioner.
He was appointed by Fine Gael taoiseach Liam Cosgrave in 1976, and later by Fianna Fáil Taoiseach Charles Haughey, in 1982.
He was minister for education in the Fine Gael-Labour coalition of 1973 to 1977.
President Michael D Higgins has paid tribute to Mr Burke. President Higgins said he will be remembered for his two terms as EU Commissioner and his contribution as minister for education which lead to "the establishment of a comprehensive system of higher level education."
Former taoiseach John Bruton, who was first elected to the Dáil in the same election in 1969, also paid tribute.
He said Mr Burke was "a very successful, reforming, minister for education, with concrete achievements to his name", and who also "won the trust of existing institutional interests".
Born in New York to Irish parents in 1932, Mr Burke returned to Upperchurch in Tipperary in 1935, where is was educated at the CBS Thurles.
He later studied at University College Dublin and King's Inns.
While serving as minister for education, he established the Institutes of Higher Education, removed the requirement for students to pass Irish to pass their Leaving Cert. and introduced Transition Year.
He was also responsible for Fine Gael joining the Christian Democrats in the European Parliament.
"While he wanted change, he was able to make it happen because he also showed respect for what the existing institutions had achieved for the children of Ireland in times when resources were more scarce," Mr Bruton said.
Mr Burke is sadly missed by his wife Mary; his children Mary, David, Audrey, Richard and Avila; his sons-in-law John Cunningham, Graham Molloy, and David Pigot; and his daughters-in-law Catherine Burke and Elaine Burke; and his much-loved grandchildren David, Stephen, Robert, Alison, Edith, Richard, Zach, Grace, Erin, Ava, Elia and Michael.
He was predeceased by his son Joseph.
