Fine Gael TD Twomey to step down

Fine Gael TD and former health spokesperson Dr Liam Twomey is to step down at the next general election due to private “family reasons”.

The Cork-born GP and Wexford representative, who was first elected in 2002 as an Independent candidate before joining the then opposition party in 2004, said the decision was made “with a heavy heart” after a decade of public service.

He was a high-profile media performer in the last years of the Celtic Tiger, regularly criticising then health minister Mary Harney over privatisation policies including the now scrapped co-location plan, surging waiting lists, and the emerging scandal of nursing home abuse.