FORMER CEANN comhairle of the Dáil and minister for health Dr Rory O’Hanlon has announced that he will not contest the forthcoming general election.
The Fianna Fáil politician informed local party activists of his retirement at the weekend and in a statement yesterday he thanked the voters in the Cavan-Monaghan constituency whom he has represented in the Dáil for the last 33 years.
First elected as part of the Fianna Fáil landslide in 1977, he was appointed minister of state at the department of health and social welfare by then taoiseach Charles Haughey in October 1982, but lost his job within a few months when Fianna Fáil went into opposition.
He became the party’s health spokesman in 1983 and was appointed minister for health when Haughey led Fianna Fáil back into government in 1987.
He served in that position for four years, through the 1989 general election, and was described by The Irish Timesat the time as "conscientious rather than effective".
Haughey moved him to the department of the environment in 1991, a post that Dr O’Hanlon held until the following year, when he was one of eight cabinet ministers fired in a single day by incoming taoiseach Albert Reynolds.
Dr O’Hanlon chaired the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party for eight years from 1994 to 2002 and became leas cheann comhairle (deputy speaker) of the Dáil in 1997 and ceann comhairle in 2002, a position that he occupied until the last general election in 2007.
He was a member of the New Ireland Forum from 1985 to 1987 and vice-chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs from 2007 until the present.
He was medical representative on the North Eastern Health Board from its inception in 1970 until 1987.
Born on February 7th, 1934, Rory O’Hanlon was educated at Blackrock College and University College Dublin.
He was a family doctor in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, from 1965 to 1994. He is the father of the prominent actor and comedian Ardal O’Hanlon, who starred in the Father Ted television comedy series.
In his statement yesterday, Dr O’Hanlon said: “I very much appreciate the dedication and enthusiasm of those who work with Fianna Fáil in a voluntary capacity.
“I also wish to thank my constituency colleagues, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Brendan Smith and Margaret Conlon TD, whom I continue to support. I am proud to be a member of Fianna Fáil. I will continue to work to the best of my ability in my role as a TD until the next general election. Following my retirement, I will remain an active member of Carrickmacross Cumann,” he concluded.
