Editing Éamon de Valera (section)

===Final years as Taoiseach===
[[File:Mary Collins, Mayor John F. Collins, and Eamon deValera, President of Ireland (10158888433).jpg|thumb|right|De Valera (right) with [[Mayor of Boston]] [[John F. Collins]] and his wife Mary]]
Returning to Ireland during the [[Mother and Child Scheme]] crisis that racked the First Inter-Party Government, de Valera kept silent as Leader of the Opposition, preferring to stay aloof from the controversy. That stance helped return de Valera to power in the [[1951 Irish general election|1951 general election]], but without an overall majority. His and Fianna Fáil's popularity was short-lived, however; his government introduced severe, deflationary budgetary and economic policies in 1952, causing a political backlash that cost Fianna Fáil several seats in the Dáil in [[by-elections]] of 1953 and early 1954. Faced with a likely loss of confidence in the Dáil, de Valera instead called an [[1954 Irish general election|election in May 1954]], in which Fianna Fáil was defeated and a [[Second Inter-Party Government]] was formed with John A. Costello again as Taoiseach.<ref>{{cite book |title=Irish television: the political and social origins |last=Savage |first=Robert J. |year=1996 |publisher=Cork University Press |isbn=978-1-85918-102-7 |page=224}}</ref>

On 16 September 1953, de Valera met British Prime Minister Winston Churchill for the first and only time, at [[10 Downing Street]]. (The two men had seen each other at a party in 1949, but without speaking). He surprised the UK Prime Minister by claiming that if he had been in office in 1948 Ireland would not have left the Commonwealth.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.winstonchurchill.org/support/the-churchill-centre/publications/finest-hour-online/833--winston-churchill-a-eamon-de-valera-a-thirty-year-relationship |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100703212616/http://www.winstonchurchill.org/support/the-churchill-centre/publications/finest-hour-online/833--winston-churchill-a-eamon-de-valera-a-thirty-year-relationship |url-status = dead|archive-date=3 July 2010 |title=Winston Churchill & Eamon De Valera: A Thirty Year "Relationship" |publisher=Winstonchurchill.org |access-date=21 August 2013}}</ref>

It was during this period that de Valera's eyesight began to deteriorate and he was forced to spend several months in the [[Netherlands]], where he had six operations. In 1955, while in opposition, de Valera spoke against the formation of a [[European Parliament]] and [[European federalism]], noting that Ireland "''did not strive to get out of that British domination [...] to get into a worse [position]''".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/history-warns-us-about-the-risks-of-ceding-power-to-eu-26549913.html |title=Opinion: History warns us about the risks of ceding power to EU |website=Irish Independent |quote="''Eamon de Valera on [..] return from Strasbourg in 1955 where he had been attending a meeting that was part of the construction of the future Europe [...] said: 'We did not strive to get out of that British domination of our affairs by outside force, or we did not get out of that position to get into a worse one'.''" |date=11 July 2009 |first=Bruce |last=Arnold |access-date=1 August 2018 |archive-date=1 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180801124740/https://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/history-warns-us-about-the-risks-of-ceding-power-to-eu-26549913.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Like the first coalition government, the second lasted only three years. At the [[1957 Irish general election|general election of 1957]], de Valera, then in his seventy-fifth year, won an absolute majority of nine seats, the greatest number he had ever secured. This was the beginning of another sixteen-year period in office for Fianna Fáil. A new economic policy emerged with the First Programme for Economic Expansion. In July 1957, in response to the [[Border Campaign (IRA)]], Part II of the Offences Against the State Act was re-activated and he ordered the internment without trial of Republican suspects, an action which did much to end the IRA's campaign.<ref>Coogan, Tim Pat ''de Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow'' p. 669, {{ISBN|0-09-995860-0}}, {{ISBN|978-0-09-995860-4}}.</ref>

De Valera's final term as Taoiseach also saw the passage of numerous reforms in health and welfare. In 1952, unemployment insurance was extended to male agricultural employees, child allowances were extended to the second child, and a maternity allowance for insured women was introduced. A year later, eligibility for maternity and child services and public hospital services was extended to approximately 85% of the population.<ref name="Growth to Limits"/>