Ruairi Quinn
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| Ruairi Quinn, TD | |
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| In office December 15, 1994 – June 26, 1997 |
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| Preceded by | Bertie Ahern |
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| Succeeded by | Charlie McCreevy |
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| Born | 2 April 1946 Dublin, Ireland |
| Political party | Labour Party |
Ruairi Quinn (Irish: Ruairí Ó Cuinn) (born 2 April 1946) is an Irish Labour politician. He is currently a Teachta Dála (TD) for Dublin South East and was leader of the Labour Party from 1997 to 2002.
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[edit] Youth
Ruairi Quinn was born on 2 April 1946. He was educated at Blackrock College, University College Dublin and the School of Ekistics in Athens. He became an architect with Dublin Corporation in 1971. He was a partner in an architecture firm from 1973 to 1982. In 1976 he was appointed to Seanad Éireann. He was first elected a Labour TD for Dublin South East at the 1977 General Election. He lost his seat at the 1981 General Election and served in Seanad Éireann again. He was re-elected as TD in Feb 1982 General Election and has retained his seat since.
[edit] Early Ministerial Career
In 1982 he became Minister of State at the Department of the Environment. Between 1983 and 1986 he served as Minister for Labour. From 1986-1987 he was appointed Minister for the Public Service. In 1989 he became deputy leader of the Labour Party. He was director of elections for Mary Robinson's successful Presidential election campaign.
[edit] Minister for Enterprise & Employment
In the Fianna Fáil-Labour coalition government of 1993/1994 Quinn became Minister for Enterprise and Employment.
He oversaw the merger of the former Department of Industry and Commerce with the former Department of Labour, with a new focus on enterprise development and the reduction of the then high level of unemployment. Quinn implemented reform of industrial strategy and reorganised the industrial development agencies. He also introduced the Community Employment Programme to provide activity and involvement for unemployed workers in 1994. This proved to be particularly successful.
Quinn was seen as comfortable with the Fianna Fáil members of the cabinet. He also tended to be a moderniser in economic terms but, despite attempts, failed to close the Irish Steel company in Haulbowline, Co Cork, a classic loss-making smoke stack industry that harked back to an earlier era. Nevertheless, it was in August, 1994, while Quinn and Fianna Fáil's Bertie Ahern were economic ministers, that the Irish economy was first described as the "Celtic Tiger".
Quinn, along with many of his Labour cabinet colleagues, strove unsuccessfully to keep the Fianna Fáil Labour Government together during the Father Brendan Smyth crisis in November, 1994. He records in his autobiography that he still cannot understand why that Government fell.
[edit] Minister for Finance
The following year he became Minister for Finance in the Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left "rainbow coalition" government. Quinn took a relatively conservative line as Finance Minister, being conscious of his position as the first Labour Minister for Finance in Irish political history. He quickly proved his competence, dispelling opposition jibes and stock market fears about a social democratic minister holding the sensitive finance portfolio. The Irish economy rapidly expanded during his term, while inflation and the government finances were kept under firm control. Unemployment gradually fell and public services were improved.
During Quinn's tenure as Minister for Finance, the overall tax burden in Ireland (the ratio of tax revenue, including pay related social insurance levies, to gross national product) fell from 38.7% to 34.8%, of by 1.3 percentage points each year. He achieved this by limiting current government spending to grow by 6.8% in nominal terms or 4.8% in real terms. Quinn's successors have, in contrast, allowed government current spending to grow by 7.6% in real terms each year on average to 2006. The overall tax burden has only reduced by 1% since Quinn was Minister.
Under Quinn, the General Government Balance went from a deficit of 2.1% in 1995 to a surplus of 1.1% in 1997. The General Government Debt went from 81% of GNP in 1995 to 63.6% in 1997. The year before Quinn became an economic Minister in 1993, Irish economic growth was 2.5% (1992), in 1993 GNP growth was 3%; in 1994, 6.5%; in 1995, 8%; in 1996, 7.8%; and finally in 1997, 10.3%.
The unemployment rate fell during Quinn's tenure from 1993 to 1997 as follows: 15.7% in 1993; 14.7% in 1994; 12.2% in 1995; 11.9% in 1996; and finally, 10.3% in 1997.
While Quinn earned respect for his economic competence, he served with some distinction as the President of the Ecofin Council of the EU in 1996 and accelerated the impetus to the launch of the European Single Currency, securing Ireland's qualification for the eurozone. Quinn and his party leader and Tanaiste, Foreign Minister Dick Spring enjoyed a somewhat uneasy relationship during the rainbow coalition, as recounted in Quinn's 2005 autobiography. Quinn's successful tenure as Finance Minister was not notably exploited by the Rainbow Government during the subsequent general election campaign of May and June, 1997, when the Labour Party lost 15 seats and Fianna Fáil took office.
[edit] Leader of the Labour Party
[edit] Accession to Leadership
In October, 1997 Dick Spring retired as leader of the Labour Party following an unsuccessful campaign by the Labour Candidate, Adi Roche, in the Irish Presidential Election. Ruairi Quinn defeated Brendan Howlin to become the new leader. In 1999 the Labour Party and Democratic Left merged. Proinsias De Rossa of the latter party became president, while Quinn remained as leader of the party. He used the years of leadership to develop a strong policy platform, publishing a Spatial Strategy for future development of the country, promoting universal access to health insurance, advocating reform of the Garda Siochana (police), and arguing for closer European integration. Fianna Fáil countered by cleverly exploiting Quinn's comfortable middle class background, labelling him "Mr Angry from Sandymount," the middle class district of Dublin where Quinn is a longtime resident, and representative of, in the Dáil.
[edit] 2002 General Election
In the 2002 General Election, which saw the ruling Fianna Fáil and Progressive Democrat Government reelected, the Labour Party returned the exact same level of parliamentary seats it had held. Quinn fought that election on an independent platform although he indicated a preference to enter Government with the Fine Gael party he had served with in the Rainbow era. Quinn's strategy was predicated on Labour holding the balance of power and keeping a distance from the two bigger parties. This underestimated the attraction for the electorate of the outgoing Ahern Government that had enjoyed extraordinary economic growth and prosperity.
Realising that the choice was between a majority Fianna Fáil Government on the one hand, or a Government of Fianna Fáil with a watchful partner on the other, the Progressive Democrats, through their President, Michael McDowell, a constituency rival of Quinn's, seized the moment and put themselves forward as the guarantor of the public interest in a new Fianna Fáil Government. This left Labour stranded and almost as irrelevant to the outcome of the election as Fine Gael. Under the leadership of Michael Noonan and Jim Mitchell , Fine Gael conducted a disastrous campaign, alienating even some of their most traditional support and the party suffered heavy losses, being reduced to 31 seats, their worst performance in decades.
Meanwhile, the Progressive Democrats doubled their seats to eight and emerged with two full cabinet positions. Disappointed that he had only maintained Labour's number of Dail seats while, at the same time, Fine Gael had collapsed, Quinn announced that he would not seek reelection as leader of the Labour Party at the end of August, 2002.
[edit] Post-Leadership
In October,2002 Quinn's term as Party Leader expired and he retired as Labour leader, being replaced in a leadership election by Pat Rabbitte. He is still a TD, being Labour Party spokesperson on Enterprise Trade and Employment, and he leads the European Movement Ireland, a civil society organisation campaigning on European issues in Ireland. Quinn is also Vice-President and Treasurer of the Party of European Socialists. He is a brother of Lochlann Quinn, former Chairman of AIB Bank, and a first-cousin of Senator Feargal Quinn.
In 2005, his political autobiography, "Straight Left", was published.
[edit] 2007 General Election
Quinn is currently a candidate for the 2007 General Election, and is considered a prime candidate for Ministerial duty if Labour is a part of the next Government. He has recently established an Election Office in Sandymount village.
[edit] Political career
| Oireachtas | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Fergus O'Brien (Fine Gael) |
Labour Party Teachta Dála for Dublin South East 1977–1981 |
Succeeded by Redrawn constituency results in loss of seat |
| Preceded by Seán Moore (Fianna Fáil) |
Labour Party Teachta Dála for Dublin South East 1982 – present |
Incumbent |
| Political offices
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| Preceded by Ger Connolly |
Minister of State (with special responsibility for Housing) 1982–1983 |
Succeeded by Fergus O'Brien |
| Preceded by Gerard Brady |
Minister of State (with special responsibility for Urban Affairs) 1982–1983 |
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| Preceded by Liam Kavanagh |
Minister for Labour 1983–1987 |
Succeeded by Bertie Ahern |
| Preceded by Pádraig Flynn |
Minister for Enterprise & Employment 1993–1994 |
Succeeded by Richard Bruton |
| Preceded by Bertie Ahern |
Minister for Finance 1994–1997 |
Succeeded by Charlie McCreevy |
| Preceded by Dick Spring |
Leader of the Irish Labour Party 1997–2002 |
Succeeded by Pat Rabbitte |
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
| Leaders of the Labour Party |
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| Thomas Johnson (1922–1927) • Thomas J. O'Connell (1927–1932) • William Norton (1932–1960) • Brendan Corish (1960–1977) • Frank Cluskey (1977–1981) • Michael O'Leary (1981–1982) • Dick Spring (1982–1997) • Ruairi Quinn (1997–2002) • Pat Rabbitte (2002–) |
This page incorporates information from the Oireachtas Members Database
Categories: 1946 births | Living people | People from County Dublin | Leaders of the Irish Labour Party | Irish Ministers for Finance | Teachtaí Dála | Members of the 13th Seanad | Members of the 15th Seanad | Members of the 21st Dáil | Members of the 23rd Dáil | Members of the 24th Dáil | Members of the 25th Dáil | Members of the 26th Dáil | Members of the 27th Dáil | Members of the 28th Dáil | Members of the 29th Dáil
