Profile: Dara Calleary finally scores Ministerial role after long campaign

Dara Calleary (right) will succeed his party colleague Barry Cowen (left) as Minister for Agriculture. File Photo: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

Dara Calleary has his golden sky.

The Mayo TD freely admitted that he was disappointed and hurt to be overlooked when Taoiseach Micheál Martin initially named his cabinet. The party's deputy leader had travelled a hard road with Fianna Fáil since his election in 2007 and would have considered his ability and work alongside Mr Martin to be sufficient qualification for a full cabinet role.

Instead he was named Chief Whip, but the massive Liverpool fan said that he took solace in the words of You'll Never Walk Alone.

"At the end of the storm there’s a golden sky, and I’m going to make sure there’s a golden sky for the west," he said.

That golden sky will have come sooner, and in very different circumstances, than Mr Calleary will have expected, but party sources do not doubt his readiness.

"Dara is very sharp, he'll want to get to grips with the brief very quickly and thoroughly," said one party insider. Mr Calleary is hugely popular across the political divide and is seen as friendly and engaging.

Schooled in Ballina, Mr Calleary went on to secure a BA in business and politics from Trinity College, Dublin before returning to Mayo.

The 47-year-old Ballina man has been involved in Fianna Fáil politics himself since 1997, but as the son and grandson of TDs, his DNA and that of his party are intertwined. He was elected to the FF National Executive in 1997, where he served until 2007, when he was elected on the eighth count in Mayo. For a year, he served as chairman of the party's youth wing, Ógra Fianna Fáil.

In 2009, he was appointed Minister of State for Labour Affairs and Public Service Transformation as the Fianna Fáil government crashed out of office. Mr Calleary's popularity in his home county saw him retain his seat on a dismal day for the party in 2011. He was elected as the only TD not from Fine Gael in the five-seat constituency anchored by former Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

 

In opposition he was part of the party frontbench, first acting as spokesperson on justice, equality and defence until July 2012 and then as spokesperson on jobs, enterprise and innovation.

Mr Calleary will be replaced as Chief Whip by Dublin West TD Jack Chambers. In 2016, Mr Chambers became the youngest member of the Dáil and went on to be Fianna Fáil's defence spokesperson. Born in Galway, he has a law and political science degree from Trinity College and spent time studying at the Royal College of Surgeons before his election.

Mr Chambers' role at the Department of Finance will be taken by Sean Fleming. The Laois man is a trained accountant who served as the party's financial director and is a former chair of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee.