Paul Gogarty

Paul Gogarty
Teachta Dála
In office May 2002 – February 2011
Constituency	Dublin Mid–West
Personal details
Born	(1968-12-20) 20 December 1968 Castlepollard, County Westmeath
Nationality	Irish
Political party	Green Party
Alma mater	Dublin Institute of Technology
Website	www.paulgogarty.com

Paul Nicholas Gogarty (born 20 December 1968) is a former Irish Green Party politician. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Mid–West constituency from 2002 to 2011.^[1] He has since been involved in music projects, and released his debut album under the stage name of His Sweet Surprise on 17 February 2013.^[2][3]

Early and private life

Gogarty spent the first four years of his life in Palmerstown, but has mostly lived in Lucan.^{[citation needed]} He was educated at St Mary's Boys National School and Colaiste Padraig, Lucan.^{[citation needed]} He later went on to study journalism at the Dublin Institute of Technology. As a result of this, Gogarty worked as a journalist and editor before being elected to the Dáil in 2002.^{[citation needed]}

Political career

Local politics

Gogarty joined the Green Party in 1989 as a student.^[4] He ran unsuccessfully at the 1991 local elections in the Castleknock area.^[5] Gogarty was first elected at the 1999 local elections in the Lucan local electoral area, topping the poll with 1,238 votes.^[6]

Dáil Éireann

Gogarty previously contested the 1992^[7] and 1997^[8] general elections in the Dublin West constituency. He also ran at the 1996 by-election caused by the death of Brian Lenihan, Snr.^[9] At the 2002 general election he was elected to the Dáil for the new Dublin Mid–West constituency.^[10] He was the first Green Party member to be elected in a three-seat constituency. After his election, Gogarty gave up his local council seat, in line with Green Party policy against dual-mandate and was succeeded by the late Fintan McCarthy. At the 2007 general election, he retained his Dáil seat, taking the second seat in the enlarged constituency.^[11]

Following the Green Party's entry to government in 2007, Gogarty was appointed chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Education and Science.^[12] In 2007, Gogarty unsuccessfully ran for the position of chair in the Green Party, losing to Dan Boyle. He was education Spokesperson of the Party from 2002 until 2011, developing the Party's "50 Steps to a Better Education System" but resigned for six months over an internal matter in 2009.^{[citation needed]}

In 2002, 2003 and again in 2008, Paul Gogarty called for the pay of members of the Irish Parliament and Seanad to be cut. In November 2003 he described the decision to raise TDs pay by 13% during the Celtic Tiger era, compared with 6% for pensioners and social welfare recipients as a "urination" on the less well off in society.^[13]

On 3 August 2010, Gogarty wrote to the Clerk of the Seanad asking that newspaper claims alleging that Senator Ivor Callely had supplied phone expenses claims on headed paper belonging to a company which no longer existed be investigated. Gogarty appeared on the RTE Joe Duffy radio show discussing this issue. Following on from the interview and because he had been asked by a number of members of the public why he had not made a formal complaint to the Garda Siochana, Gogarty went into Lucan Garda station the next day and requested a full investigation, suggesting that Callely was either a victim of gross defamation or had been involved in fraud.^[14]

In November 2010, he brought his 18-month old daughter to a Green Party press conference in which his party's leader John Gormley announced the junior coalition party's intention to seek a general election early in 2011.^[15] The following day, many callers to Joe Duffy's Liveline radio show criticised his decision to bring his daughter to an important press conference. Gogarty defended his decision by saying that his regular childminder was not available when the press conference was called.^[16]

Gogarty's work in protecting educational investment during a period of cutbacks has been widely reported in the media, including a profile in The Irish Times in November 2010, which claimed that his contribution was recognised by admirers and detractors alike.^[17]

2009 Swearing incident

On 11 December 2009, during his contribution^[18] to a debate in the Dáil on the Social Welfare bill of the 2010 budget, Gogarty said to Labour Party TD Emmet Stagg: "With all due respect, in the most unparliamentary language, fuck you Deputy Stagg! Fuck you!"^{[19][20][21][22]} He immediately made a personal apology to the House for his use of unparliamentary language,^[23] which was criticised by Deputy Lucinda Creighton, who demanded his suspension.^[24] The incident was referred to a sitting of the Dáil committee on procedure and privileges, when it emerged that "fuck" is not included among the list of forbidden words set out in the Salient Rulings of the Chair, the document which regulates the behaviour and conduct of TDs.^[25] Gogarty later clarified that the outburst was totally unintentional and not premeditated as some had suggested.^[26] He also said that the outburst had to be taken in the context of his contribution during the debate that day^[18] as well as a very turbulent and heated debate the previous night.^[27]

Loss of seat

Gogarty lost his seat at the 2011 general election, polling 3.47% of the poll and losing his right to reclaim election expenses. He conceded defeat at 10:22 a.m. on 26 February after posting on Twitter saying "I concede with good grace".^[28][29]

After politics

In June 2011 Gogarty spent four days filming at the "Charity ICA Bootcamp" in County Louth. The show was broadcast on RTÉ the following August. He raised €5,000 for Pieta House, a suicide prevention and awareness charity. From July to November 2011 Gogarty was involved in season 4 of the RTÉ television series Celebrity Bainisteoir managing Oughterard's Seamus Ó Máille GAA Club, Galway.^[30] Tony Cascarino's team beat him in the end, with extra-time being needed in the final for the first time in Celebrity Bainisteoir.^[31]

In an interview with TheJournal.ie, Gogarty was reported to have claimed that he was considering changing parties to Fianna Fáil saying that "I haven’t finished with the Greens. I am very much green to the core, but in terms of getting political objectives achieved, I have not made up my mind with whether I will go back into politics, whether the Green Party has a chance to recover or whether we need a strong green element in some other organisation".^[32] Gogarty himself, in commenting on this piece clarified that he was asked to run for Fianna Fáil in Oughterard and said "I haven't ruled it out", but denied that this meant he was actively considering running for Fianna Fáil, as the headlines suggested. He also indicated that he was asked to join Fine Gael in 2002. In May 2012 he claimed he was "no longer a member at present" of the Green Party.^[33]

In August 2012, Gogarty released his debut single "Wishing On A Photograph" under the stage name of His Sweet Surprise.^[34] His third single "Know You All My Life" reached No. 1 on the 7Digital Download Chart in January 2013.^[35][36] This was followed by his debut album, also titled "His Sweet Surprise".

References

External links

• Paul Gogarty's official website