Toddy O'Sullivan

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Toddy O'Sullivan (Irish: Tomás Ó Suilleabháin; born 1934) is a retired Irish Labour Party politician who served for sixteen years as TD for constituencies in Cork, and for five years as a junior government minister.

[edit] Electoral history

O'Sullivan first stood as a candidate for Dáil Éireann at the by-election on 7 November 1979 in the Cork City constituency, followinng the death of Labour TD Patrick Kerrigan. The by-election was won by Fine Gael's Liam Burke, but O'Sullivan was successful at his next attempt, when he topped the poll at the 1981 general election in the new constituency of Cork North Central.

He was re-elected at the next five general elections, moving in 1987 to Cork South Central, before losing his seat at the 1997 general election. He stood again at the by-election on 23rd October 1998 in Cork South Central following the death of Fine Gael TD Hugh Coveney, but the seat was won by Coveney's son Simon.

[edit] Ministerial career

In the 24th Dáil, he was initially overlooked for promotion under the Fine Gael-Labour coalition government of Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald, but in February 1986 he was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of the Environment. Along with the other Labour ministers, he resigned on 20th January 1987 in protest at proposed cuts in health spending, bringing about the coalition's collapse.

Six years later, after the 1992 general election led to a Fianna Fáil-Labour coalition, O'Sullivan was again overlooked for ministerial office, and instead became Chairman of the Dáil's Enterprise and Economic Strategy Committee. After the collapse of that government and its replacement with the Fine Gael-Labour-Democratic Left Rainbow Coalition, Taoiseach John Bruton appointed him in December 1994 as Minister of State at the Department of Tourism and Trade, a position he held until Fianna Fáil returned to power at the 1997 general election.