End of an era as Haughey to step away from politics

FIANNA Fáil TD for Dublin Bay North Seán Haughey has announced that he will not contest the next general election.

In a statement last night, Mr Haughey, 62, said that after devoting ‘all my adult life to public service’ now is ‘the right time for me to step down from frontline politics’.

Mr Haughey is a son of former Fianna Fáil leader Charles Haughey, and the grandson of Seán Lemass, both former taoisigh.

He is the third politician from the Dublin Bay North constituency to announce they will not contest the next general election, after Fine Gael’s Richard Bruton announced he would step down and Labour’s Aodhán Ó Riordáin announced his candidacy for the European Parliament elections in June.

Mr Haughey, pictured, has served as a city councillor, a senator, a TD and a junior minister for education.

He was first elected to Dublin City Council in 1985 and went on to serve as Lord Mayor of Dublin.

He was elected to the Seanad in 1987 where he served until 1992 when he was elected to the Dáil for the first time as a TD for Dublin North Central.

He failed in both 1987 and 1989 general elections to gain a seat in Dublin North-East constituency but has since been returned to the Dáil in six of the following seven general elections as a TD for Dublin Bay North.

He said: ‘I am extremely grateful to my constituents for their loyal support down through the years and wish to thank them for the trust they placed in me to be their representative in Dáil Éireann… I am also proud that I could carry on a family tradition of public service in the constituency dating right back to the 1950s.’

Fianna Fáil leader and Tánaiste Micheál Martin described Mr Haughey as ‘a man of great integrity’.