HE MAY have announced his retirement from politics but there's no let up for Jim Mitchell. Yesterday, he was speaking on two phones at once as he dealt with constituency business.
He's 50 today and his family are young and living at home, so he can catch up on some of the family life he missed while working "100 hours a week" in politics. He also fulfils requirements for a Dail pension at £16,500, or half salary, which will supplement his ministerial pension of £12,312. He gave up a promising career in the Guinness Brewery, where he was road transport manager, to go into politics.
In recent years, Mr Mitchell has developed a sideline as a business consultant and his clients have included Esat Digifone. He also intends to write articles on public policy issues.
He rejects the widely held view that his decision arose out of disappointment at being left off Fine Gael's Cabinet team. He points out he has been a Cabinet minister twice already, first at Justice and then Transport and Posts and Telegraphs (later renamed Communications). He has also held the office of Lord Mayor of Dublin as well as chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee, and he is currently chairman of the Finance and General Affairs Committee.
He ran unsuccessfully for the European Parliament in 1994 and doesn't rule out the "possibility" of running again in three years' time.
Loyalty to his party is Jim Mitchell's middle name. Sure of election to the Dail in the 1973 general election, he stood aside and allowed Mr Declan Costello take the seat. Elected in 1977, Mr Mitchell played a major part in securing Dail seats in his Dublin West constituency for Mr Dick Burke and Mr Austin Currie. In the last election he facilitated Mr Currie by moving to Dublin Central and won a seat in largely unfamiliar territory.
His greatest feat, in his own eyes and the eyes of others, was the way he masterminded the success of Mr Liam Skelly for Fine Gael in the "epic" by election created when Mr Charles Haughey nominated Mr Burke to the European Commission.
He might have expected more thanks for his efforts on behalf of Fine Gael but denies he is bitter in any way. He opposed Mr John Bruton in the 1994 vote of confidence and doesn't regret his reference at the time to Mr Bruton's "charismatic deficit". He believes it was an accurate description at the time, but charisma can come with power, and he says the deficit has been remedied since Mr Bruton became Taoiseach.
He was less successful when as Minister for Communications, he tried to facilitate the setting up of independent local radio stations but ran into doctrinaire opposition from Labour, which insisted on a minimum 51 per cent State ownership.
Mr Mitchell announced his retirement on Thursday, but already a Dublin city councillor for the Cabra ward, Mr John Kearney (28), has announced he is seeking the nomination. The names of two former Fine Gael TDs, Dr Pat Lee and Mr Michael Keating, have also been mentioned.
Mr Mitchell says another reason for his retirement is that politics has become `deadly boring' with the development of consensus politics.