Fine Gael's Michael Creed to retire as TD

Sources have said that Mr Creed, a former agriculture minister, told a Fine Gael AGM in Millstreet, Cork on Monday night. Picture: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

Michael Creed has told a private Fine Gael meeting that he would not be contesting the next general election.

Sources have said that the TD, a former agriculture minister, told a Fine Gael AGM in Millstreet, Cork on Monday night.

Mr Creed represents the Cork North-West constituency and has been in politics for 38 years.

According to sources that attended the meeting, Mr Creed said he would work hard until the end of the Dáil term but that he would not be putting his name forward at the next general election.

Mr Creed was first elected to the Dáil in 1989 before losing his seat in the 2002 general election. He regained it five years later and was made Fine Gael agriculture spokesperson.

He served as minister for agriculture, food and the marine from 2016 to 2020.

His decision to retire as a TD comes just a week after Fine Gael's John Paul Phelan also announced he would resign as a TD for Carlow-Kilkenny at the end of the Dáil term.

The news is a fresh blow to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar with four sitting TDs now announcing they will not be running in the next election.

They include Kerry TD Brendan Griffin, Donegal TD Joe McHugh as well as Mr Phelan and Mr Creed.

Fine Gael sources have said they expect similar announcements from other colleagues in the coming months.

It leaves Mr Varadkar facing an electoral crisis in the next general election.

Mr Varadkar acknowledged there are a number of TDs who have given decades of service but said he believes there is a period for renewal for the party.

“The situation is within Fine Gael, we have a large number of TDs who have more than 20 years service, some of up to 40 years service,” he told reporters last week.

“They have been in government, they have been in opposition, they have given decades of service to their communities, to their country and to their party and they are not going to contest the next election and that is the nature of things when people have done a job for 20 or 30 years, they often want to move on and I entirely understand that and that’s the reason why they’re doing so.”