Born in 1952, Fianna Fáil stalwart Willie O’Dea was the joint father of the Dáil along with Richard Bruton of Fine Gael, having the longest unbroken run of membership dating back to the election of February 1982.

Mr O’Dea is no stranger to controversy and has been an outspoken critic of his party and its policies, particularly on hate speech.

A qualified accountant and barrister, Mr O’Dea had knocked on the Cabinet table for any any years and finally was given the Defence portfolio between 2004 and 2010. However, he had to resign from his Cabinet position over comments he made to the Limerick Leader newspaper wrongly linking the then Sinn Fein councillor Maurice Quinlivan to a brothel, from which defamation proceedings ensued.

Mr O’Dea also came under criticism for a photo of him aiming a gun down a camera lens towards reporters while he was defence minister. When criticised by the then Labour TD Pat Rabbitte, Mr O’Dea told him to “get a life”.

Recently. Mr O’Dea has contemplated retirement, saying he’ll write a tell-all book called ‘WillieLeaks’.