Once touted as the next Fine Gael leader, Ivan Yates's resignation gave Enda Kenny his shot at the big time, writes Deaglán de Bréadún
WHEN JOHN Bruton resigned as Fine Gael leader in 2001 after losing a vote of no confidence, Wexford TD Ivan Yates was seen as a likely successor.
However, having developed a successful bookmakers’ business, Yates had grown weary of political life and he announced his intention to leave politics.
This created an opening for Enda Kenny to run for the leadership.
Although Michael Noonan was successful on that occasion, the subsequent general election in 2002 was such a disaster for the Limerick deputy that Noonan resigned from the top job, to be replaced by Kenny.
If things had worked out differently, Yates could today be the obvious contender for the office of taoiseach instead of having to contend with the appointment of a receiver to his betting company, Celtic Bookmakers.
Born in October, 1959, Ivan Yates grew up in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, and was first elected to the Dáil in June 1981, four months short of his 22nd birthday. He was the youngest TD in the House at the time and retained that distinction through two more general elections.
When appointed minister for agriculture in the rainbow government by taoiseach John Bruton, he was the youngest member of that cabinet at 35 years of age.
As a farmer himself, who had attended Gurteen Agricultural College in Co Tipperary after secondary school at St Columba’s College, Rathfarnham, and as a TD from a strong farming constituency, Yates was an obvious choice for the agriculture portfolio.
Interviewed by The Irish Timeswhen he was still in government, he admitted nurturing an ambition to move to finance at some stage.
Asked in the course of the interview why Charles Haughey’s benefactor Ben Dunne had given him £5,000 in 1992, he said he had only met the retailer once, for a drink, and had never been asked to do anything in return for the money.
One of the notable features of his term in agriculture was his enthusiastic promotion of forestry and he launched a 30-year development strategy for the sector involving a £3 billion investment.
Green at a time when it was neither popular nor profitable, he was before his time, saying: “Trees are totally environmentally friendly”.
Leaving politics and Fine Gael behind to pursue his alternative career as a bookmaker, Yates has returned to the limelight in recent years as a pundit in newspapers and on television and as co-presenter of the Breakfast Showon the radio station, Newstalk.
As a newspaper columnist and as a broadcaster, his style is quirky and personal. Last week he wrote in the Irish Examinerthat 2010 had been an "annus maximus horribilis".
Although he was discussing politics and the economy, he could just as easily have been talking about his business affairs.
As chairman and managing director of Celtic Bookmakers, he expanded the company from its Wexford base to a chain of shops around the country.
‘Today is a profoundly sad day for our employees, for our families and for ourselves,” said Yates yesterday, but, given his effervescent nature, it will be no surprise if he bounces back from his current travails.