MINISTER FOR Transport Noel Dempsey has declined to confirm whether he will be a candidate in the general election in early 2011.
Mr Dempsey, a TD for Meath West, said he had not finalised any decision on his candidacy, and would be making his mind up over the Christmas.
In an interview with Newstalk's Breakfastprogramme yesterday, Mr Dempsey, who has been a TD for 23 years, said: "I'm in politics and was always in politics out of conviction.
“I don’t think politics is working as well as it should in the current circumstances. I think now is the time for something other than politics.”
When asked if he was signalling he may quit politics, Mr Dempsey said no inference should be drawn from what he had said. Nothing should be read into what he had said other than the decision would be made after Christmas.
“I normally go through procedures of the party before, and talk to the party before, I’d make any announcement one way or the other.”
He said the Meath West convention for the general election would be held in early January.
The election is expected to take place in late February or early March.
Mr Dempsey also chairs Fianna Fáil’s organisation committee, which deals directly with the selection of candidates for the general election in all 43 constituencies.
Following the unexpected announcement last week by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern that he would retire from national politics at the end of the 30th Dáil, there has been speculation that other senior Ministers may also retire ahead of the election. The names most frequently mentioned are Mr Dempsey and Minister for Health Mary Harney.
Separately, Fine Gael TD for Galway West Pádraic McCormack said yesterday he was disappointed at not being selected as one of his party’s two candidates in the constituency for the election.
At a selection convention in Galway over the weekend, Senator Fidelma Healy Eames and Brian Walsh were chosen as the two official candidates.
Mr McCormack, a deputy for 21 years, was due to retire in 2007, but agreed to stand after the late withdrawal of one of its candidates.
He said 200 delegates had been unable to attend the convention because of the bad weather. He told RTÉ he did not know if that affected the outcome.
He said he would not seek to be added to the ticket, saying that was a decision for others.
Independent deputy for Dublin Central Maureen O’Sullivan also said she had not decided on her intentions and would probably do so over Christmas.
Ms O'Sullivan told The Irish Timesthe main priority of her organisation was to ensure that a strong Independent deputy be returned in the constituency who would abide by the principles of the late Tony Gregory.