‘Fine Gael shunned me after I lost whip’
Denis Naughten’s pain at cold shoulder from ex-party colleagues
FORMER Communications Minister Denis Naughten has spoken out about being ‘shunned’ by his Fine Gael colleagues after voting against the party.
In 2011, the Roscommon TD lost the party whip after he voted against the Government on the downgrading of hospital services in his constituency.
He was allowed to remain on the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, but two years later Mr Naughten was expelled from the committee for pressing for an amendment to abortion laws.
After 26 years in politics, the 49-year-old politician announced on Monday he would not be contesting the next general election,
Yesterday, he revealed his hurt at how his party colleagues gave him the cold shoulder.
‘Having to vote against the party in 2011, and be expelled in the manner that I was expelled from the parliamentary party... all of that really hurt,’ he said,
‘They were as close as family to me’
speaking to Katie Hannon for RTÉ’s Upfront: The Podcast.
‘These were my colleagues. These were my work colleagues. These were as close as family to me. And when you walked around the corridors the next day, and the next week, when people that you had been friendly with the week before literally shunned you... That was hard,’ he said.
‘It was a very, very cold place here in Leinster House at that time. Far colder than it was after I resigned as minister,’ he added.
Mr Naughten was appointed Communications Minister in 2016, as part of a deal between independent TDs and Fine Gael to form a minority government.
Two years later he was forced to step down, following controversy about meetings with the sole remaining bidder for the National Broadband Plan.
‘Would you agree that you were largely the architect of your own downfall in relation to that?’ Ms Hannon asked.
‘Yes, looking back on it now,’ Mr Naughten replied. ‘But I do know that the intention behind all of that was to keep the sole bidder in the process and to deliver on the National Broadband Plan... and I think it will transform society as a whole, even to a far greater extent than rural electrification ever did.’
Mr Naughten first entered the Oireachtas as a senator in 1997 after the death of his father, Senator Liam Naughten, who was killed in a car crash.
The then 23-year-old had been at the Young Fine Gael conference in Co. Waterford when the accident happened.
‘Jim Miley, the secretary-general of the party, called me into his room and broke the news to me.
‘We travelled back in John Bruton’s car. John was Taoiseach, and his driver brought us back.
‘I’ll never forget it because he spent the whole journey back from Waterford to Roscommon talking about football and kept our minds off things.’
At the time of his father’s death, the Roscommon native was studying for a PhD in Food Microbiology at University College Cork.
He said science remains his passion, and he hopes to work in the area after leaving politics.
‘‘I was never someone who really wanted to be in the public eye. My ideal job would have been to be chief scientific adviser to the Government. I loved science, I loved politics, I loved the interaction between both of those. If I had my choice of career, that’s what my ambition would have been.’
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar did not comment on Mr Naughten’s grievances with the Fine Gael party when paying tribute to his political career earlier this week.
‘I want to pay tribute to Denis Naughten for the enormous contribution he has made to politics nationally, and to his native county,’ Mr Varadkar said.
‘I am absolutely convinced that the National Broadband Plan would not be a reality today were it not for Mr Naughten’s work on it as minister,’ he added.
‘It was a cold place in Leinster House’