Quinn was born on 2 April 1946. His family were prominent republicans in County Down in the 1920s, taking an active part in the IRA during the War of Independence and on the anti-Treaty side during the Civil War. The Quinns were prosperous merchants in Newry, County Down, then moved to Dublin in the 1930s, where Quinn's father built a successful business career.
Quinn was educated at St Michael's College and Blackrock College, both situated in Dublin, where he was academically successful and an outstanding athlete and a member of Blackrock College's Senior Cup rugby team. From an early age, he was interested in art and won the all-Ireland Texaco Children's Art competition. This prompted him to study architecture at University College Dublin (UCD), in 1964 and later at the School of Ekistics in Athens.[citation needed]
In 1965, Quinn joined the Labour Party, working on Michael O'Leary's successful campaign in Dublin North-Central. In the following years, Quinn was a leading student radical in UCD demanding reform of the university's structures and the old fashioned architectural course that then prevailed. This earned him the nickname "Ho Chi Quinn", after the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh.[2]
He travelled in Europe and became a europhile, which was to be a defining characteristic of his political career.[according to whom?] He qualified as an architect in 1969 and married for the first time that year before embarking on studies in Athens. He and his first wife had a son and a daughter. He married again in 1990 and has a son with his second wife, Liz Allman, an architect, whose family came from Milltown, County Kerry. He then became an architect with Dublin Corporation in 1971.
Early political career
In 1972, Quinn decided he would stand for the Labour Party in the next general election and hoped he would be the running mate of the sitting Labour deputy for Dublin South-East, Noël Browne. The party organisation was largely moribund since the 1969 general election, as Browne had been ill and little work had been done locally.[citation needed] When the 1973 general election, Quinn was the only Labour Party candidate, as Browne refused to stand in principled opposition to the Labour Party's decision to enter into a pre-election pact with Fine Gael to form a National Coalition.[3] Quinn lost by 39 votes to Fergus O'Brien of Fine Gael in the final count. Following the 1973 election, Quinn began to rebuild the Labour Party in Dublin South-East with his mainly youthful supporters. He won a council seat on Dublin Corporation at the local elections in 1974 in the Pembroke–Rathmines local electoral area and took a leading role in the Labour Party group on the city council.[4]
On 10 March 1991, Quinn was observed by Gardaí driving erratically in the Clontarf area. At Clontarf Garda Station, Quinn provided a urine sample, which showed him to have an 202mg of alcohol for 100ml of urine. He was banned from driving for a year and fined £250.[6]
In July 1993, Quinn adopted a successful employment policy called the Back to Work Allowance, which targeted the long-term unemployed. This allowed unemployed people to retain their unemployment benefits on a sliding scale for a number of years, while setting up a business or taking up a job.[7] He also presided over the merger of the former Department of Industry and Commerce with the former Department of Labour, with a new focus on enterprise development and reduction of high unemployment levels. 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, which proved to be particularly successful.
Quinn was seen as a moderniser in economic terms, but who tried and failed to close the Irish Steel company in Haulbowline, County Cork. 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.
The following year, Quinn became Minister for Finance in the Rainbow coalition of Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left. He took a relatively conservative line as finance minister, conscious of his position as the first Labour Party Minister for Finance in Ireland.[2] 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 continued to perform, while inflation and the government finances were kept under firm control. Unemployment gradually fell and public debt levels 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, against a backdrop of improving economic fortunes, due to increasing investment in technology-intensive sectors of the Irish economy.
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 fell 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 1997, it was 10.3%. The unemployment rate fell from 15.7% in 1993 to 10.3% in 1997.
Quinn served as the president of the Ecofin Council of the European Union in 1996, and worked to accelerate the launch of the European Single Currency, while securing Ireland's qualification for the eurozone. Quinn, and his party leader and Tánaiste, Foreign Minister Dick Spring enjoyed a somewhat uneasy relationship during the Rainbow Coalition, as recounted in Quinn's 2005 memoir. At the 1997 general election the Labour Party returned to opposition, winning only 17 of its outgoing 33 seats. Many other ministers of the Labour Party were under significant pressure from the media (particularly the Irish Independent) concerning allegations of cronyism ("jobs for the boys") and abusing the privileges of office. In comparison, the opposition under Bertie Ahern placed heavy reliance on cutting tax rates as opposed to widening tax bands favoured by Quinn. Ahern also claimed that credit for the country's improving economy was due to his earlier term in government.
Quinn succeeded Dick Spring as Leader of the Labour Party in 1998
In October 1997, Dick Spring resigned as leader of the Labour Party following an unsuccessful campaign by the Labour Party candidate, Adi Roche, in the 1997 Irish presidential election. 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 the largely symbolic party president, while Quinn remained as leader of the party. He used his 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 Síochána, and arguing for closer European integration. Fianna Fáil countered by exploiting Quinn's middle-class background, labelling him "Mr Angry fromSandymount," the middle-class district of Dublin where Quinn is a longtime resident, and part of the constituency he represented.
At the 2002 general election, which saw the incumbent Fianna Fáil and Progressive Democrats government re-elected, the Labour Party returned with no net gain since the previous election, after accounting for the merger with Democratic Left. Quinn fought that election on an independent platform, although he indicated a preference to enter government with Fine Gael, with which he had served with in the Rainbow coalition era. Quinn's strategy was predicated on the Labour Party 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, which had enjoyed extraordinary economic growth and prosperity.[according to whom?]
Realising that the choice was between a majority Fianna Fáil government on the one hand, or a government of Fianna Fáil in coalition with the Progressive Democrats, 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. Under the leadership of Michael Noonan, Fine Gael lost 23 seats, being reduced to 31 seats, their worst performance in decades.
Quinn was disappointed that, even though Labour had not lost seats in net numbers and Fine Gael had lost 23 seats, he had failed to increase the number of seats his party held, in an election that resulted in gains for small parties on the left end of the political spectrum, such as Sinn Féin and the Green Party. Quinn himself was re-elected on the last count by 600 votes. Accepting that he would now be in opposition for another term, Quinn announced that he would not seek re-election for another six-year term as leader of the Labour Party, at the end of August 2002.
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. When Rabbitte resigned as party leader in 2007, Quinn supported the successful candidacy of Eamon Gilmore. His public support of Gilmore, where he also brought the endorsement of all the Dublin City Councillors in his area, was seen as instrumental in discouraging other candidates from entering the race. Quinn caused anger and controversy when he refused to give up his minister's pension worth €41,656 while sitting as a TD in 2009. He eventually backed down after pressure was put on him to give up the pension.
At the 2007 general election, Quinn increased his share of the poll by some 4% and was returned to the 30th Dáil. He was nominated for the post of Ceann Comhairle but was defeated by John O'Donoghue. Quinn became Labour Party spokesperson on Education and Science as a member of Eamon Gilmore's front bench in September 2007. Quinn contributed to the successful second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in September 2009 and continued to be an office holder with the Party of European Socialists.
In September 2010, Quinn was appointed as the Labour Party's national director of elections for the 2011 general election by Gilmore. He had been selected along with Kevin Humphreys to be a candidate for Labour in that election. Both Quinn and Humphreys were elected to the 31st Dáil on 27 February 2011; strategic vote management saw the Labour Party in Dublin South-East secure two seats with only a quarter of the first preference vote.
Minister for Education: 2011–2014
On 9 March 2011, Quinn was appointed as Minister for Education and Skills in the Fine Gael–Labour coalition government.[8] In May 2011, he confirmed a U-turn on a pre-election pledge that he would reverse a proposed increase in third-level student registration fees, instead providing for a €500 increase in the fee payable by students.[9] In July 2011, Quinn had again refused to rule out the return of college fees as he acknowledged the funding crisis in the higher education sector. The Minister told a meeting of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) that the funding crisis in higher education will “not go away” for many years to come. Asked if new charges were planned, he said: “I honestly can't say. We are looking for efficiencies in the system at third level. ... I have said to Brendan Howlin that I will deliver.”[10]
In October 2012, Quinn announced the phasing out of the current Junior Certificate programme over the next eight years, to be replaced by a school-based model of continuous assessment.[11] He described his plan as "the most radical shake-up of the junior cycle programme since the ending of the Inter Cert in 1991",[12] and claimed the scrapping of the Junior Certificate exams would help the "bottom half" of students.[13] This reform was never implemented.
On 12 October 2012, Quinn, speaking to an audience at an anniversary celebration for St Kilian's German School, said the "demons of nationalism" and "chauvinism" embedded in our cultures would only stay under control if there was a deeper European culture. He went on to say they "will only stay in the place where they belong if we have more Europe, if we have a deeper Europe, if we have a wider Europe".[14]
On 29 January 2013, Quinn launched Ireland's first national plan to tackle bullying in schools, including cyberbullying. The Action Plan on Bullying set out 12 clear actions on how to prevent and tackle bullying.[citation needed]
Quinn was responsible for the Further Education and Training Act 2013, which replaced the largely discredited state training and employment agency, FÁS, with a new statutory body named SOLAS.[citation needed]
On 2 July 2014, Ruairi Quinn announced his decision to resign as Minister for Education and Skills, which became effective following the cabinet reshuffle on 11 July. He also said that he would not be seeking re-election to the Dáil after the 2016 Irish general election.[15][16]
Ruairi Quinn (2005). Straight Left: A Journey in Politics. Dublin: Hodder Headline Ireland. ISBN0-340-83296-7.
Related Research Articles
Fianna Fáil, officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party, is a centre to centre-right political party in Ireland.
Albert Martin Reynolds was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach and Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1992 to 1994. He held cabinet positions between 1979 and 1991, including as Minister for Finance from 1988 to 1991. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Longford–Roscommon from 1977 to 1992 and for Longford–Westmeath from 1992 to 2002.
Alan Martin Dukes is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Minister for Transport, Energy and Communication from 1996 to 1997, leader of the Opposition and leader of Fine Gael from 1987 to 1990, Minister for Justice from 1986 to 1987, Minister for Finance from 1982 to 1986 and Minister for Agriculture from 1981 to 1982. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1981 to 2002.
John Gerard Bruton was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 1994 to 1997 and Leader of Fine Gael from 1990 to 2001. He held cabinet positions between 1981 and 1987, including twice as minister for finance. He was Leader of the Opposition from 1990 to 1994 and 1997 to 2001. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Meath from 1969 to 2004.
The 2002 Irish general election to the 29th Dáil was held on Friday, 17 May, just over three weeks after the dissolution of the 28th Dáil on Thursday, 25 April by President Mary McAleese, at the request of the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. The general election took place in 42 Dáil constituencies throughout Ireland for 166 seats in Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas, with a revision of constituencies since the last election under the Electoral (Amendment) Act 1998. The outgoing minority Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrat administration was returned with a majority of 10.
Richard Martin Spring is an Irish former Labour Party politician who served as Tánaiste from 1982 to 1987, 1992 to November 1994, and December 1994 to 1997, Leader of the Labour Party from 1982 to 1997, Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1993 to November 1994 and December 1994 to 1997, Minister for Energy from 1983 to 1987, and Minister for the Environment from 1982 to 1983. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for Kerry North from 1981 to 2002.
Pat Rabbitte is an Irish former Labour Party politician who served as Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources from 2011 to 2014, Leader of the Labour Party from 2002 to 2007 and a Minister of State from 1994 to 1997. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South-West constituency from 1989 to 2016.
Máire Geoghegan-Quinn is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician who served as European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science from 2010 to 2014, Member of the European Court of Auditors from 2000 to 2010, Minister for Equality and Law Reform from November 1994 to December 1994, Minister for Justice from 1993 to 1994, Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications from 1992 to 1993, Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach from 1987 to 1989, Minister of State for Youth and Sport from March 1982 to December 1982, Minister for the Gaeltacht from 1979 to 1981, Minister of State at the Department of Industry, Commerce and Energy from 1978 to 1979 and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1977 to 1978. She served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Galway West constituency from 1975 to 1997.
The 1997 Irish general election to the 28th Dáil was held on Friday, 6 June, following the dissolution of the 27th Dáil on 15 May by President Mary Robinson, on the request of Taoiseach John Bruton. The general election took place in 41 Dáil constituencies throughout Ireland for 166 seats in Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas, under a revision in the Electoral (Amendment) Act 1995.
The 1977 Irish general election to the 21st Dáil was held on Thursday, 16 June, following the dissolution of the 20th Dáil on 25 May by President Patrick Hillery on the request of Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave. The general election took place in 42 Dáil constituencies throughout Ireland for 148 seats in Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas, an increase of four seats. There was a significant revision of constituencies under the Electoral (Amendment) Act 1974. Jack Lynch led Fianna Fáil to a landslide election win, clearly defeating the outgoing Fine Gael–Labour government.
The 1973 Irish general election to the 20th Dáil was held on Wednesday, 28 February 1973, following the dissolution of the 19th Dáil on 5 February by President Éamon de Valera on the request of Taoiseach Jack Lynch. The general election took place in 42 Dáil constituencies throughout Ireland for 144 seats in Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas.
The Leader of the Opposition in Ireland is a de facto term sometimes used to describe the politician who leads the largest party in the parliamentary opposition in Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas. In the Dáil, the leader of the opposition sits on the right-hand side of the Ceann Comhairle and directly opposite the Taoiseach. The role is not an official one and is not recognised in the Irish constitution, nor in legislation.
Brendan Howlin is an Irish former Labour Party politician who served as Leader of the Labour Party from 2016 to 2020, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform from 2011 to 2016, Leas-Cheann Comhairle from 2007 to 2011, deputy leader of the Labour Party from 1997 to 2002, Minister for the Environment from 1994 to 1997 and Minister for Health from 1993 to 1994. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Wexford constituency from 1987 to 2024. He also served as a Senator from 1983 to 1987, after being nominated by the Taoiseach.
Events from the year 2002 in Ireland.
The 2007 Irish general election took place on Thursday, 24 May after the dissolution of the 29th Dáil by the President on 30 April, at the request of the Taoiseach. The general election took place in 43 parliamentary constituencies throughout Ireland for 166 seats in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of parliament, with a revision of constituencies since the last election under the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2005. The outgoing Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrat administration was returned, joined by the Green Party and supported by some independents, giving a government majority of 9.
Barry Andrews is an Irish politician who serves as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Dublin constituency. He is a member of Fianna Fáil, part of Renew Europe. He previously served as Minister of State for Children from 2008 to 2011. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dún Laoghaire constituency from 2002 to 2011.
Ruairí Brugha was an Irish politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Ireland from 1977 to 1979, Senator for the Industrial and Commercial Panel from 1969 to 1973 and 1977 to 1981 and a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin County South constituency from 1973 to 1977. Brugha was a member of the Irish republican parties Clann na Poblachta (1946-1961) and Fianna Fáil.
The 2011 Irish general election took place on Friday 25 February to elect 166 Teachtaí Dála across 43 constituencies to Dáil Éireann, the lower house of Ireland's parliament, the Oireachtas. The Dáil was dissolved and the general election called by President Mary McAleese on 1 February, at the request of Taoiseach Brian Cowen. The 31st Dáil met on 9 March 2011 to nominate a Taoiseach and approve the new ministers of the 29th government of Ireland, a Fine Gael and Labour Party coalition government with a majority of 58.
Fine Gael is a political party in Ireland, formed in 1933 as a merger of Cumann na nGaedheal, the National Centre Party, and the Blueshirts.
Fianna Fáil was founded on 23 March 1926 when a group of Dáil deputies led by Éamon de Valera split from the original Sinn Féin. This happened because de Valera's motion calling for elected members be allowed to take their seats in the Dáil, if and when the controversial Oath of Allegiance was removed, failed to pass at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis. The new party adopted its name on 2 April of the same year. From the formation of the first Fianna Fáil government on 9 March 1932 until the 2011 general election, the party was in power for 61 of 79 years. Its longest continuous period in office was 15 years and 11 months. Its single longest period out of office, in that time, has been four years and four months. All eight of its party's leaders have served as Taoiseach. It was the largest party in Dáil Éireann at every general election from the 1932 general election until the 2011 general election, when it suffered the worst defeat of a sitting government in the history of the Irish state.
References
↑ "Ruairi Quinn". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 19 April 2019. Retrieved 22 October 2009.
↑ Horgan, John (October 2009). "Browne, Noel Christopher". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 11 February 2024. The inevitable upshot of this was that when Labour went into the 1973 election on the basis of a pre-election pact with Fine Gael, Noel Browne refused to sign the party pledge and was accordingly deselected as a party candidate for Dublin South-East.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
