Desmond O'Malley

Desmond "Des" Joseph O'Malley ( Irish : Deasún Seosamh "Des" Ó Máille ; born February 1, 1939 in Limerick ) is a former Irish politician who founded the Progressive Democrats after his expulsion from the Fianna Fáil and from 1985 to 1993 whose chairman was.

biography

Deputy and Minister of Fianna Fáil

O'Malley came from a politically influential Limerick family. Both his father Desmond O'Malley and his uncles Michael O'Malley and the future Minister Donogh O'Malley were Lord Mayors of Limerick.

He himself studied after school attendance law and was after graduation as Solicitor operates.

He began his own national political career as a candidate for the Fianna Fáil with the election of deputy ( Teachta Dála ) of the lower house ( Dáil Éireann ) in a by-election ( by-election ) on May 22, 1968. There he represented after ten subsequent re-elections until 2002 the constituency of Limerick East .

Just one year after moving into the House of Commons, he was appointed by Prime Minister ( Taoiseach ) Jack Lynch in 1969 as parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister and at the same time as parliamentary manager of the government group ( Government Chief Whip ).

As part of a government reshuffle, he was appointed Minister of Justice on May 7, 1970. He held this office until the end of Lynch's tenure on June 18, 1973.

After the Fianna Fáil won again, Prime Minister Lynch appointed him Minister of Industry and Trade in his cabinet on July 5, 1977. In the subsequent government of Lynch's successor, Charles J. Haughey , he was Minister for Industry, Trade and Energy from December 12, 1979 to June 30, 1981, and Minister of Tourism from January 23, 1980 to June 30, 1981.

In the second Haughey government, he was appointed Minister for Trade and Tourism on March 9, 1982. He held this position until his resignation on October 6, 1982.

Exclusion from the Fianna Fáil and establishment of the Progressive Democrats

After O'Malley, who had been a bitter opponent of Haughey since the so-called Irish arms crisis of 1970 , was ultimately expelled from the Fianna Faíl in 1985 for "improper behavior" when he did not want to support the party's opposition stance on contraception , He founded the Progressive Democrats and was also its chairman from December 21, 1985 to October 12, 1993.

When the Progressive Democrats in the 1987 general election, the third strongest result and 14 seats (11.9%) straight away, O'Malley was re-elected as a member of the lower house.

When it came to the formation of a coalition government of Fianna Fáil with the Progressive Democrats after Haughey's withdrawal from political life and the general election in 1992 , O'Malley was appointed Minister of Industry and Trade by the new Prime Minister Albert Reynolds on February 11, 1992. In the following months, however, there were increasing tensions and differences of opinion between the coalition partners, so that O'Malley finally resigned as minister on November 4, 1992, and the coalition thus failed. The main reason for this was accusations of dishonesty during the so-called "Beef Tribunal" (beef tribunal, a tribunal that was created in 1991 to clear up inconsistencies in the export trade for beef, and the extent to which politicians were also involved).

Most recently he was chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs from November 12, 1997 to March 27, 2002.

His daughter Fiona O'Malley was also a member of the House of Commons and has been a member of the Senate ( Seanad Éireann ) since 2007 .

Web links

• Homepage of the Oireachtas
• Irish Ministeries (rulers.org)