Former Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte is to shadow Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan following a shake-up of the party's front bench announced yesterday by his successor, Eamon Gilmore, who said the new line-up blended youth and experience.
Under the reorganisation, three new policy bodies are to be set up within the parliamentary Labour Party to spur the creation of new policies on the economy, social affairs and the environment, led by TDs Seán Sherlock, Brian O'Shea and Joanna Tuffy.
"The role of the new policy bureaus will be to identify key trends and developments in these areas and to ensure that party policy evolves to take account of changing circumstances," Mr Gilmore said yesterday.
Cork East TD Seán Sherlock has been appointed to cover the agriculture and food portfolio.
Labour's two other new TDs, Dublin Mid-West's Joanna Tuffy and Cork South Central's Ciarán Lynch, have been given responsibility for covering environment and heritage and housing and local government issues.
Explaining the significant changes made to frontbench portfolios, Mr Gilmore said that he had not felt the need to "shadow" existing departments as they stand because they "are often created simply as an administrative convenience for Government".
He said that he had given responsibility to TDs Kathleen Lynch, Brendan Howlin, Joe Costello and Brian O'Shea to cover a number of specific briefs, including human rights, constitutional and law reform, disability issues and the Irish language.
Leas-Cheann Comhairle Brendan Howlin has ceded responsibility for covering justice, and instead has been given charge of a new portfolio dealing with constitutional and law reform issues.
These included the upcoming referendums on the European Union and children's rights.
Mr Howlin, said Mr Gilmore, will continue to play an important role for Labour dealing with constitutional issues since it "is a portfolio that is entirely consistent with his role as Leas- Cheann Comhairle".
Promising a "positive" Labour Party, Mr Gilmore said: "the approach that we intend to take in this Dáil is one of putting forward our policies, setting the agenda, rather than reacting to the Government agenda".
Ireland, he said, had "a very healthy economy but people can't get healthcare, one of 10 children living in poverty, and we are at the bottom in education.
"People out there are not that exercised about some of the games that go on here in Leinster House. They want solutions to the problems in their lives.
"A person in a queue in a hospital waiting ward isn't that pushed about who is performing best or scoring best in the chamber of Leinster House. They want to know who has the solution to their problem."
Warning that the economic landscape is now "quite different", Mr Gilmore said: "we have seen turmoil in the financial markets".
He accused the Government of refusing to manage the housing market in the interests of home buyers."
