Ruairi Quinn

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Minister for Finance
Ruairi Quinn, TD

In office
December 15, 1994 – June 26, 1997
Preceded by	Bertie Ahern
Succeeded by	Charlie McCreevy
Born	2 April 1946 Dublin, Ireland
Political party	Labour Party

Ruairi Quinn (Irish: Ruairí Ó Chuinn) (born 2 April 1946) is an Irish Labour politician. He is currently a Teachta Dála (TD) for Dublin South East and was leader of the Labour Party from 1997 to 2002.

Ruairi Quinn was born on 2 April 1946. He was educated at Blackrock College, University College Dublin and the School of Ekistics in Athens. He became an architect with Dublin Corporation in 1971. He was a partner in an architecture firm from 1973 to 1982. In 1976 he was appointed to Seanad Éireann. He was first elected a Labour TD for Dublin South East at the 1977 General Election. He lost his seat at the 1981 General Election and served in Seanad Éireann again. He was re-elected as TD in Feb 1982 General Election and has retained his seat since.

In 1982 he became Minister of State at the Department of the Environment. Between 1983 and 1986 he served as Minister for Labour. From 1986-1987 he was appointed Minister for the Public Service. In 1989 he became deputy leader of the Labour Party. He was director of elections for Mary Robinson's successful Presidential election campaign.

In the Fianna Fáil-Labour coalition government of 1993/1994 Quinn became Minister for Enterprise and Employment.

He oversaw the merger of the former Department of Industry and Commerce with the former Department of Labour, with a new focus on enterprise development and the reduction of the then high level of unemployment. Quinn implemented reform of industrial strategy and reorganised the industrial development agencies. He also introduced the Community Employment Programme to provide activity and involvement for unemployed workers in 1994. This proved to be particularly successful.

Quinn was seen as comfortable with the Fianna Fail members of the cabinet. He also tended to be a moderniser in economic terms but, despite attempts, failed to close the Irish Steel company in Haulbowline, Co Cork, a classic loss-making smoke stack industry that harked back to an earlier era. Nevertheless, it was in August, 1994, while Quinn and Fianna Fail's Bertie Ahern were economic ministers, that the Irish economy was first described as the "Celtic Tiger".

Quinn together with many of his Labour cabinet colleagues strove unsuccessfully to keep the Fianna Fail Labour Government together during the Father Brendan Smyth crisis in November, 1994. He records in his autobiography that he still cannot understand why that Government fell.

The following year he became Minister for Finance in the Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left "rainbow coalition" government. Quinn took a relatively conservative line as Finance Minister, being conscious of his position as the first Labour Minister for Finance in Irish political history. He quickly proved his competence, dispelling opposition jibes and stock market fears about a social democratic minister holding the sensitive finance portfolio. The Irish economy rapidly expanded during his term, while inflation and the government finances were kept under firm control. Unemployment gradually fell and public services were improved.

During Quinn's tenure as Minister for Finance, the overall tax burden in Ireland (the ratio of tax revenue, including pay related social insurance levies, to gross national product) fell from 38.7% to 34.8%, of by 1.3 percentage points each year. He achieved this by limiting current government spending to grow by 6.8% in nominal terms or 4.8% in real terms. Quinn's successors have, in contrast, allowed government current spending to grow by 7.6% in real terms each year on average to 2006. The overall tax burden has only reduced by 1% since Quinn was Minister.

Under Quinn, the General Government Balance went from a deficit of 2.1% in 1995 to a surplus of 1.1% in 1997. The General Government Debt went from 81% of GNP in 1995 to 63.6% in 1997. The year before Quinn became an economic Minister in 1993, Irish economic growth was 2.5% (1992), in 1993 GNP growth was 3%; in 1994, 6.5%; in 1995, 8%; in 1996, 7.8%; and finally in 1997, 10.3%.

The unemployment rate fell during Quinn's tenure from 1993 to 1997 as follows: 15.7% in 1993; 14.7% in 1994; 12.2% in 1995; 11.9% in 1996; and finally, 10.3% in 1997.

While Quinn earned respect for his economic competence, he served with some distinction as the President of the Ecofin Council of the EU in 1996 and accelerated the impetus to the launch of the European Single Currency, securing Ireland's qualification for the eurozone. Quinn and his party leader and Tanaiste, Foreign Minister Dick Spring enjoyed a somewhat uneasy relationship during the rainbow coalition, as recounted in Quinn's 2005 autobiography. Quinn's successful tenure as Finance Minister was not notably exploited by the Rainbow Government during the subsequent general election campaign of May and June, 1997, when the Labour Party lost 15 seats and Fianna Fail took office.

In October, 1997 Dick Spring retired as leader of the Labour Party following an unsuccessful campaign by the Labour Candidate, Adi Roche, in the Irish Presidential Election. Ruairi Quinn defeated Brendan Howlin to become the new leader. In 1999 the Labour Party and Democratic Left merged. Proinsias De Rossa of the latter party became president, while Quinn remained as leader of the party. He used the years of leadership to develop a strong policy platform, publishing a Spatial Strategy for future development of the country, promoting universal access to health insurance, advocating reform of the Garda Siochana (police), and arguing for closer European integration. Fianna Fail countered by cleverly exploiting Quinn's comfortable middle class background, labelling him "Mr Angry from Sandymount," the middle class district of Dublin where Quinn is a longtime resident, and representative of, in the Dail.

In the 2002 General Election, which saw the ruling Fianna Fail and Progressive Democrat Government reelected, the Labour Party returned the exact same level of parliamentary seats it had held. Quinn fought that election on an independent platform although he indicated a preference to enter Government with the Fine Gael party he had served with in the Rainbow era. Quinn's strategy was predicated on Labour holding the balance of power and keeping a distance from the two bigger parties. This underestimated the attraction for the electorate of the outgoing Ahern Government that had enjoyed extraordinary economic growth and prosperity.

Realising that the choice was between a majority Fianna Fail Government on the one hand, or a Government of Fianna Fail with a watchful partner on the other, the Progressive Democrats, through their President, Michael McDowell, a constituency rival of Quinn's, seized the moment and put themselves forward as the guarantor of the public interest in a new Fianna Fail Government. This left Labour stranded and almost as irrelevant to the outcome of the election as Fine Gael. Under the leadership of Michael Noonan and Jim Mitchell , Fine Gael conducted a disastrous campaign, alienating even some of their most traditional support and the party suffered heavy losses, being reduced to 31 seats, their worst performance in decades.

Meanwhile, the Progressive Democrats doubled their seats to eight and emerged with two full cabinet positions.

In October,2002 Quinn's term as Party Leader expired and he retired as Labour leader, being replaced in a leadership election by Pat Rabbitte. He is still a TD, being Labour Party spokesperson on Enterprise Trade and Employment, and he leads the European Movement Ireland, a civil society organisation campaigning on European issues in Ireland. Quinn is also Vice-President and Treasurer of the Party of European Socialists. He is first-cousin of Senator Feargal Quinn.

In 2005, his political autobiography, "Straight Left", was published.

[edit] Political career

Oireachtas
Preceded by: Fergus O'Brien (Fine Gael)	Labour Party Teachta Dála for Dublin South East 1977–1981	Succeeded by: Redrawn constituency results in loss of seat
Preceded by: Seán Moore (Fianna Fáil)	Labour Party Teachta Dála for Dublin South East 1982 – present	Incumbent
Political Offices
Preceded by: Ger Connolly	Minister of State (with special responsibility for Housing) 1982–1983	Succeeded by: Fergus O'Brien
Preceded by: Gerard Brady	Minister of State (with special responsibility for Urban Affairs) 1982–1983	Succeeded by: Fergus O'Brien
Preceded by: Liam Kavanagh	Minister for Labour 1983–1987	Succeeded by: Bertie Ahern
Preceded by: Pádraig Flynn	Minister for Enterprise & Employment 1993–1994	Succeeded by: Richard Bruton
Preceded by: Bertie Ahern	Minister for Finance 1994–1997	Succeeded by: Charlie McCreevy
Preceded by: Dick Spring	Leader of the Irish Labour Party 1997–2002	Succeeded by: Pat Rabbitte

[edit] See also

Families in the Oireachtas

[edit] External links

Ruairi Quinn TD Website

Leaders of the Labour Party
Thomas Johnson \| Thomas J. O'Connell \| William Norton \| Brendan Corish \| Frank Cluskey \| Michael O'Leary \| Dick Spring \| Ruairi Quinn \| Pat Rabbitte