77 TDs to decide successor
The first step towards selecting a new leader takes place today when the parliamentary party’s executive — consisting of the chairman, leader, deputy leader, whip and assistant whip — meet to agree a deadline for nominations and the date for an election if there is more than one candidate.
Those arrangements will be relayed to the party’s national executive, which is conveniently, but by coincidence, also meeting tonight. If it becomes clear that there is only one candidate, his or her election could be confirmed within days as happened when Mr Ahern was uncontested in succeeding Albert Reynolds.
In the past, when there had been more than one contender for the post, the contest has run for a few weeks although the timeframe is already tight given the May 6 date for Mr Ahern’s resignation.
He will visit Áras an Uachtaráin to formally tender his resignation to President Mary McAleese on May 6 and attend the next available sitting of the Dáil where his pre-elected successor will be elected taoiseach by the Dáil as a whole.
The new taoiseach will then announce his or her new cabinet, which may see some reshuffling of the current ministers, and the group will then travel to Áras an Uachtaráin to formally receive their seals of office.
HIS destiny as future taoiseach has appeared secure since last June when, in a space of a couple of days, Bertie Ahern appointed him Tánaiste in the new cabinet and declared him most likely to succeed him, praising the Offaly man’s “brilliant mind” and “vast experience“.
Now 48, Mr Cowen, a qualified solicitor, has been a TD for 24 years, serving as minister for labour, energy, transport, foreign affairs and health, the last of which he famously christened Angola because of all the landmines the brief carried.
As Minister for Finance he has delivered four budgets, only having to tighten the purse strings on the last occasion.
Bertie’s backing, strong party loyalty, widespread popularity and his grasp of finance at a time of economic challenges make him virtually unbeatable as a candidate for leader.
A TD for Louth since 1987, he had something of a slow start to his ministerial career, choosing to back Charles Haughey in the closing days of the former taoiseach’s rule.
He was overlooked by Haughey’s successor, Albert Reynolds, and only got his foot in cabinet in 1997 when he was made minister for social affairs. He has since held the communications brief and is currently Minister for Foreign Affairs, a post he has relished.
A former solicitor, the 52-year-old keen sportsman is respected for his intellect and assured management style but his lack of experience in the more contentious government departments work against him as a prospective leader.
A MINISTER at age 36, Micheál Martin was the youngest member of the new cabinet assembled by Bertie Ahern when Fianna Fáil returned to power in 1997 and he has held high-profile positions ever since.
The popular Cork South Central TD’s rise was so swift and visible that he was quickly rumoured to be the man to watch as successor to Bertie but after mixed fortunes in the Department of Health, he was dubbed the ‘former future taoiseach’.
Arguably the former teacher’s greatest legacy to date is bringing in the workplace smoking ban in the face of enormous doubts and criticism.
His role as Enterprise Minister over the past four years largely consisted of announcing job creations but with the economic downturn, it is about to become a lot more challenging.
A NEW kid on the cabinet block, Mary Hanafin, 48, was elected to the Dáil for the first time in 1997 and has held just two junior minister posts and one senior post, that of Minister for Education which is her current brief.
A Tipperary-born former teacher, she now represents the Dún Laoghaire constituency. Regarded as capable and ambitious, she began her stint in education as a popular choice but has since come in for criticism for failing to reduce class sizes and progress the school building programme.
She has also been embroiled in a dispute with autism campaigners over the provision of dedicated schools for autistic children, earning particular criticism for forcing a Co Wicklow couple into the High Court where she successfully opposed their attempts to get the state to fund specialist classes for their son.
A POLITICIAN who has seen more of the backroom of Fianna Fáil than most of the others, being director of elections for the party for a time as well helping formulate the programme for government for the first FF-PD coalition in 1997.
He has been busy front of house too, serving as minister for environment, education, communication and, currently, transport. Regarded as a bold and imaginative, he won praise for introducing the plastic bag charge and for beginning the process of ending the dual mandate for public representatives.
He has also had embarrassments such as the abandonment of his proposals for electronic voting and the reintroduction of third-level fees and the criticisms by Ms Justice Laffoy of his department’s handling of the Child Abuse Commission.
Now 55, he has been a TD for Meath (now Meath West) since 1987.
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