01/12/2010

O'Hanlon Is Latest FF 'Retirement'

The man who controlled daily debates in the Irish parliament, Dr Rory O'Hanlon has announced that he will not contest the forthcoming general election.

The former Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil and an ex-Minister for Health is the latest Fianna Fáil politician to announce his retirement.

In a statement yesterday he thanked the voters in the Cavan-Monaghan constituency whom he has represented in the Dáil for the last 33 years.

First elected as part of the Fianna Fáil landslide in 1977, he was appointed a Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Welfare by then Taoiseach Charles Haughey in October 1982, but lost his job within a few months when Fianna Fáil went into opposition.

He became the party's Health Spokesman in 1983 and was appointed Minister for Health when Haughey led Fianna Fáil back into government in 1987.

Dr O'Hanlon chaired the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party for eight years from 1994 to 2002 and became Leas Cheann Comhairle (Deputy Speaker) of the Dáil in 1997 and Ceann Comhairle in 2002, a position that he occupied until the last general election in 2007.

He was a member of the New Ireland Forum from 1985 to 1987 and Vice Chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs from 2007 until the present.

He was medical representative on the North Eastern Health Board from its inception in 1970 until 1987.

Born on February 7th, 1934, Rory O'Hanlon was educated at Blackrock College and University College Dublin.

(BMcC/KMcA)

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