Two for the Greens and two for Fianna Fáil
CIARÁN CUFFE: Minister of State for Planning, Sustainable Travel and Horticulture
One of the Green’s new Ministers of State, Ciarán Cuffe joined the party while he was still in his teens. First elected to the Dáil in the constituency of Dún Laoghaire in 2002, Mr Cuffe found himself at the centre of political controversy recently.
It emerged that a deal stuck in 2007, as the Greens entered Government for the first time, would have seen Mr Cuffe rotated into the Cabinet in place of Minister for the Environment John Gormley.
The party has since abandoned the plan. However, Mr Cuffe was widely tipped for a junior minister’s post.
He was born in Shankill and educated at Gonzaga College in Ranelagh and University College Dublin. He also spent a year at the University of Venice in Italy. He studied architecture and planning and lectured in urban planning at the Dublin Institute of Technology in Bolton Street prior to his election to the Dáil.
Mr Cuffe, who is 46, lives with his partner in Shankill and has two sons. He is an active user of new communications technology such as Twitter, having been described by this newspaper as “probably the most techie of all politicians”.
Also a keen cyclist, he has ridden his bicycle coast-to coast-across the United States.
He represented Dublin’s south inner city as a city councillor on Dublin City Council for 12 years from 1991 until 2003.
It emerged this week Mr Cuffe would not secure a “super junior” position with a place at the Cabinet table, which the Greens had sought.
JOHN CURRAN: Chief Whip
John Curran was marked out for future elevation in 2008 when he was given command of the Government’s cross-departmental drugs strategy in place of Pat Carey, who then became Chief Whip.
After his own promotion to Chief Whip yesterday, Mr Curran said he was following in Mr Carey’s footsteps. Mr Curran acknowledged that the Dáil arithmetic is becoming increasingly tight for the Government side in Leinster House. His new role would be “difficult and challenging”, he said.
“The numbers are tight but we still have numbers to work with and it’s important that we work with those numbers. I’ll be meeting my colleagues over the coming days to ensure that the programme for government will be implemented, and we have the numbers to do that.”
Mr Curran, who will turn 50 this year, was elected to South Dublin County Council in 1999 and the Dáil in 2002. He is the only Fianna Fáil TD in the Dublin Mid-West constituency. A former company director who ran his own business for almost 20 years, he was educated at Moyle Park College in Clondalkin and earned a degree in commerce from University College Dublin and is married with children. He has described himself as a keen sports enthusiast and an active member of the GAA. Mr Curran served as deputy Government Whip. Until yesterday, he had the title: Minister of State for the National Drugs Strategy, Community Affairs and Integration at the Departments of Community, Rural, and Gaeltacht Affairs, Justice Equality and Law Reform and Education and Science.
MARY WHITE: Minister of State for Equality, Human Rights and Integration
The deputy leader of the Green Party, who is an organic grower and a keen hill walker, was first elected to the Dáil in the five-seat Carlow Kilkenny constituency in 2007, after two unsuccessful earlier attempts.
She lives in Borris, Co Carlow, and topped the poll in the area in her first local election campaign in 1999 when she was elected to Carlow County Council. At that stage she was a prominent member of the Green Party and was appointed as deputy leader in October, 2001. She narrowly failed to be elected to the Seanad the following year.
On her website she lists among her successes getting a new library for Borris, new water sewage treatment plants for Freshford, Johnstown and Goresbridge, the George Bernard Shaw summer school being planned for Carlow in 2010, the highlighting of planning concerns in the constituency and putting green energy on to the agenda in Carlow/Kilkenny.
A native of Wicklow, she has lived in Borris for over 20 years. She was educated at the Ursuline Convent in Waterford and Trinity College Dublin. She was awarded a "pink" for sporting excellence. She wrote a guide to the Blackstairs Mountains with Joss Lynam and an account of an anti-mining campaign called Environment, Mining and Politics.She is married to Robert White; the couple have a daughter.
When former Green senator Déirdre de Búrca resigned from the Oireachtas, Ms White wrote a letter to party members saying the former senator had levelled “scathing, unfair and totally groundless criticisms” against leader John Gormley.
SEÁN CONNICK: Minister of State for Fisheries and Forestry
Seán Connick, elected to the Dáil for the first time in 2007, said he was surprised to be elevated from the Fianna Fáil backbenches to a Minister of State’s position in the Department of Agriculture yesterday.
Mr Connick said he was delighted for people in his home town of New Ross and across Co Wexford and the southeast. It was a “great recognition of the area”, he added.
“Obviously with the two Green Ministers I would have felt that there was little opportunity for the Fianna Fáil backbenchers so it was a great honour.”
Mr Connick uses a wheelchair as a result of a road traffic accident in 1977.
His father, the late John Connick, was a well-known figure in the motor industry.
Mr Connick’s proposal for a car scrappage scheme was included in the last budget.
A popular figure in Leinster House, where he is often seen with his wife, Lourde, Mr Connick is one of two Fianna Fáil TDs in the Wexford constituency.
He was elected to Wexford County Council in 2004 and New Ross Town Council in 1999.
“We’ve a big task. We’ve lots of difficulties down there but I’m looking forward to the challenge,” he said yesterday.
“I live in New Ross which is right on the border of Kilkenny, Waterford and Carlow, so ideally strategically placed. I would have a foot in all of the camps. So I’m looking forward to working with the people in the region.”