Michael O'Kennedy

Michael O'Kennedy ( Irish : Micheál Ó Cinnéide) (born February 21, 1936 in Nenagh , County Tipperary ) is an Irish politician of the Fianna Fáil and has served several times as a minister.

biography

O'Kennedy first studied law and later worked as a senior counsel.

He began his political career in 1965 when he was elected a member of the Senate ( Seanad Éireann ) for the Fianna Fáil . There he was a member of the Culture and Education group . On June 18, 1969, he resigned the Senate seat after he was elected Member of the House of Commons ( Dáil Éireann ). There he represented the constituency Tipperary- North until 1992 .

In May 1970 he was initially appointed Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Education and held this office until January 1973. Prime Minister ( Taoiseach ) Jack Lynch also appointed him minister without portfolio from December 1972 to January 1973 , before he was subsequently until the Fianna Fáil lost power on March 14, 1973 was Minister for Transport and Energy.

After the re-takeover by the Fianna Fáil under Prime Minister Lynch, he became Foreign Minister on July 5, 1977 .

Under Lynch's successor, Charles Haughey , he became Minister of Finance on December 12, 1979 as part of the government reshuffle and held this post until his resignation on December 16, 1980. At the same time, he was Minister for Economic Planning and Development from December 1979 to January 1980 and until March 1980 Minister of Public Service. In addition, he was Minister of Energy for one day from January 21-22, 1980.

On January 5, 1981 he was appointed Commissioner for Personnel, Administration and Statistics of the European Communities . Until 1985 he was the second Irish Commissioner of the EC Commission under Gaston Thorn, alongside Richard Burke .

Prime Minister Haughey reappointed him to his government as Minister of Agriculture on March 10, 1987, and held the post until November 1991. He was then Minister of Labor until the end of Haughey's tenure on February 11, 1992.

After leaving the House of Commons in 1992, he was again a member of the Seanad Éireann between 1993 and 1997, before he was again a member of the House of Commons from 1997 to 2002, in which he again represented the constituency of Tipperary-North and at the same time chaired the British- Irish Parliamentary Association (British-Irish Inter Parliamentary Body) was.

Web links

• Short biography on rulers.org
• Irish Ministries
• Entry on the side of the Oireachtas