POLITICAL CAREER:FOR WEEKS and possibly months after George Lee's landslide victory in the Dublin South byelection last June, Fine Gael basked in the glory of its success in wooing RTÉ's former economics editor.
Lee was seen as a “celebrity candidate”. He was universally recognised by the public and widely trusted and respected for his economic commentary. For the main Opposition party, his choice seemed inspired, even game-changing.
In the months after his election, his cachet was used to the maximum by Fine Gael. He was paraded throughout the country, drawing huge crowds to Fine Gael events. A month after his election, his speech on the state of the economy to the MacGill summer school in Donegal was a sell-out.
But already, some of the seeds of his later discontent were evident. His questioning of the need for some cuts and also of the response of the EU and ECB in the crises, seemed to fly in the face of Fine Gael economic policy.
It was the first of a number of occasions when Lee’s views seemed to differ from those of the party’s deputy leader and finance spokesman, Richard Bruton.
The apparent differences were quickly exploited by Fianna Fáil, which highlighted them at every opportunity.
Lee maintained yesterday that personal advancement was never his aim; rather he wanted to be given an opportunity to have real input into Fine Gael’s policies on dealing with the economic crisis.
His interpretation, and that of the party leadership’s, of what the party did to accommodate him during his short tenure as TD differ radically. Lee alleged that from his election, he was effectively cold-shouldered by the party leadership when it came to policy input.
He said he enjoyed no real relationship with Bruton, saying that they had no more than two or three conversations in all that time. He also said he had been made chair of the party’s business and economic forum without his consent.
The forum held well-attended meetings throughout the country but Lee said his role was limited to introducing other speakers.
Notwithstanding his own perception that he was not being listened to, his profile remained high. The party’s internal tracking of media appearances showed that the only Fine Gael TD who featured more than him on national radio and TV in December was Enda Kenny.
Comparatively, more press statements were released in his name than most other backbenchers. He contributed to Dáil debates on local issues in Dublin South (particularly on private clampers) and on the wider economic issues, especially during the debates on Nama and the budget.
Notably, it was Limerick West TD Kieran O’Donnell who mostly accompanied Bruton to the Dáil for debates on the economy and for priority questions on finance.
Lee was perceived not to be part of that team and there were suggestions that there was a cool relationship between him on the one hand, and O’Donnell and Bruton on the other.
For its part, the Fine Gael leadership said it made huge efforts to promote Lee’s profile and to utilise his expertise. It said he was an active contributor to the economic forum. He also chaired an internal party committee on economic policy and business affairs, a spokesman noted, but never convened a meeting. The party also said Lee was one of the team that formulated the party’s pre-budget policy and was one of the key spokespeople chosen to respond to the budget and to Nama.
It maintains he had always been identified for promotion and would have known that that could only happen when Kenny reshuffled his front bench. Party officials also challenged Lee’s claim about minimal contact with Bruton.
The Fine Gael leader and the Dublin South TD met twice last week, at which Lee intimated his intention to quit politics. Kenny offered him a frontbench role on economic planning but Lee rejected it on the ground it had been offered “under duress”. They met a second time on Friday in which Kenny repeated his offer.
Lee said he would consider his position over the weekend. At 12.30pm he phoned Kenny. A few minutes later he handed in his resignation letter to the clerk of the Dáil. At 2.30pm today George Lee’s eight-month career as a Fine Gael TD and politician will come to an end.