Michael Woods (politician)

Michael J. Woods ( Irish Mícheál Ó hUadhaigh , born December 8, 1935 in County Wicklow ) is an Irish politician of the Fianna Fáil and long-time minister.

biography

After graduating, Woods worked as a marketing consultant and managing director of companies. He began his political career as a candidate for the Fianna Fáil in 1977 with the first election as a member of the House of Commons ( Dáil Éireann ), in which he first represented the constituency of Dublin Clontarf and since 1981 the constituency of Dublin North-East .

On July 1, 1979, Prime Minister ( Taoiseach ) Jack Lynch appointed him Minister of State to the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Defense, taking on a government post for the first time as "Junior Minister". In the subsequent government of Prime Minister Charles J. Haughey , he was then between December 12, 1979 and June 30, 1981 Minister of Health and Minister of Social Welfare. In Haughey's second government, he was Minister of Health and Social Welfare from March 9 to December 14, 1982.

After the Fianna Fáil won the election again, Haughey appointed him on March 10, 1987, as Minister for Social Welfare, also in his third cabinet. As part of a government reshuffle, he was appointed Minister of Agriculture on November 14, 1991. In 1992 he ran for the office of chairman of Fianna Fáil . He was clearly defeated by 10 votes to Albert Reynolds (61 votes), while the third candidate, Mary O'Rourke, only got 6 votes.

Under Haughey's successor Albert Reynolds , he first became Minister of the Navy on February 11, 1992. After Reynolds reshuffled the government on January 12, 1993, Woods became Minister for Social Welfare for the fourth time. At the same time, after the resignation of the ministers of the Irish Labor Party on November 18, 1994, he again took over the office of Minister of Health and held these offices until the end of Reynolds' term on December 15, 1994.

After the re-electoral victory of Fianna Fáil, he was appointed Minister for Navy and Natural Resources in his cabinet by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern on June 26, 1997. Following a cabinet reshuffle, he was Minister of Education and Science from January 27, 2000 to June 6, 2002. Most recently, Woods was chairman of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Irish Parliament (Oireachtas) from November 7, 2002 to April 29, 2007 .

In January 2011 Woods announced that he would no longer run in the Dáil elections in spring 2011.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Irish Times : Woods defends abuse redress deal , Jan. 7, 2011