Éamon Ó Cuív

Ó Cuív first stood for election to Dáil Éireann at the 1987 general election in the Galway West constituency, where he was the last-placed of the four Fianna Fáil candidates, only two of whom were elected. He did better in the 1989 general election, substantially increasing his share of the first-preference votes, but was the only one of the three Fianna Fáil candidates not to be elected.

He was then elected to the 19th Seanad as a Senator for the Cultural and Educational Panel. He served there until the 1992 general election, when he finally became a TD for Galway West. His vote had increased significantly and he was elected on the first count, coming a close second for Fianna Fáil behind the Labour Party's Michael D. Higgins. At the 1997 general election, he was again elected in second place on the first count, this time being narrowly behind his Fianna Fáil colleague Frank Fahey. At the 2002 general election, he comfortably topped the poll, with over 20% of the first-preference votes. Ó Cuív again topped the poll in Galway West at the 2007 general election.[7]

In 1994, Ó Cuív raised concern amongst some in Fianna Fáil when he suggested the possibility of a prospective conditional return to the Commonwealth of Nations as a gesture to Unionists in Northern Ireland.[8] However, a straw poll of backbench Fianna Fáil TDs in 1998 showed that this had little support.[9]

In 1997, (at the start of the 28th Dáil) he was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, serving under his cousin Síle de Valera, who was the senior Minister at the Department. Following the 2002 general election, he was appointed to the cabinet as Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.

He publicly spoke of voting "No" in the first referendum on the Treaty of Nice. This public admission caused controversy as the government of which he was a member had negotiated the Treaty and called for a "Yes" vote.[10]

As a Minister, he introduced the Official Languages Act 2003, which created the office of An Coimisinéir Teanga.

Ó Cuív was at the centre of a controversy surrounding the official name of An Daingean / Dingle, a small Gaeltacht town in west County Kerry. The residents of the town held a plebiscite in November 2006, to determine which version of the town name should be used. Ó Cuív originally signalled that he was happy to abide by the locals' decision, but then said that the name could not legally be changed back to Dingle, following advice from the Attorney General of Ireland.

In 2007, Ó Cuív again called for Ireland to return to the Commonwealth as a full member state, in light of the restoration of devolution to Northern Ireland and the meeting of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in Belfast.[11]

In July 2009, Ó Cuív used a government helicopter to open a playground, at the cost of €10,000.[12] On 23 March 2010, following a cabinet reshuffle, he was appointed as Minister for Social Protection. After the resignation of Tony Killeen in January 2011, Ó Cuív was also appointed as Minister for Defence,[13] and he was also appointed Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government after John Gormley's resignation days later.[14] On 22 January 2011, after the resignation of Fianna Fáil leader Brian Cowen, Ó Cuív stated that he wished to be a candidate in the resulting election for the leadership of Fianna Fáil. He confirmed this on the TG4 News.

Ó Cuiv was the Fianna Fáil Spokesperson for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources after Fianna Fáil were ousted from power at the 2011 general election. On 8 August 2011, party leader Micheál Martin, named Ó Cuiv as deputy leader of Fianna Fáil, replacing Brian Lenihan.

On 29 February 2012, Ó Cuív resigned as Fianna Fáil's deputy leader and Communications Spokesperson. He resigned from these positions due to dissatisfaction with his party's position on the Fiscal Compact Referendum.[15][16] Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin stated that Ó Cuív would face expulsion from the parliamentary party if he did not vote with the party on the Fiscal Compact in the Dáil.[17] Coming just a week before their party conference, Ó Cuív's resignation caused a split down the middle of the Fianna Fáil party.[18]

On 12 July 2012, Ó Cuív was reappointed to the Fianna Fáil front bench as Spokesperson for Agriculture and Food, and on Community Affairs.[19] The post of deputy leader was not filled in the reshuffle. On 8 November 2018, Ó Cuív was sacked from the Fianna Fáil front bench for unveiling a candidate in a Northern Ireland election without the party’s permission.[20]

In 2018, he was one of 25 TDs to vote against the Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, which proposed to replace the protection of the life of the unborn inserted by the Eighth Amendment with a provision allowing the termination of pregnancy to be regulated by law.[21] This amendment was approved in a referendum in May 2018 by 66.4%, including 65.9% in his constituency. Ó Cuív was one of 15 TDs to vote against the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill, which became law at the end of 2018.[22] Following the 2020 general election, he said that he was 'completely against' Fianna Fail going into coalition with Fine Gael and the Green Party.[23] He later went on to publicly doubt the programme for government.[24]