Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

The sudden resignation of George Lee from the Dáil yesterday is damaging to the Opposition leader Enda Kenny, the Fine Gael party, to Lee himself and, most of all, lest other parties begin to gloat, the body politic.

When George Lee, RTÉ’s economics editor, was elected to the Dáil for Fine Gael with 27,00-odd votes in the Dublin South by-election last June, the electorate was looking for fundamental change. It didn’t happen. Mr Lee has departed Dáil Éireann surrounded by controversy – the same controversy, in fact, in which he left his job in RTÉ. He mulled over his decision for days, according to his account, making a sudden dash in the end leaving unfinished proprieties and business behind him.