Alan Kelly (politician)

Kelly is thought to have been politicised from an early age. In his final year of secondary school, he canvassed for the Labour Party during the 1992 general election. He remained active in left-wing politics in university, firstly by establishing the Jim Kemmy Branch of the Labour Party in UCC. He then became involved in a number of by-elections, local election campaigns in Cork and in the wider Munster area.

Kelly became Chair of Labour Youth in 2000, having previously served as Co-Chair. In 2001 he was a member of the General Council. In 2001 and 2002 he was director of the Tom Johnson Summer School and was also a member of the General Election Planning Committee in the period 2001-2002.[3][5]

In 2007, Kelly launched his own political career when he secured election to Seanad Éireann by the Agricultural Panel. He was the only Labour Party candidate in that grouping.[6] After the election of Eamon Gilmore as leader of the Labour Party in 2007, Kelly was appointed as Labour Party Spokesperson on Tourism and was Seanad Spokesperson on Finance and Local Government.

Kelly was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for the South constituency, at the 2009 European Parliament election, taking the last seat in a tight battle between him, Sinn Féin's Toireasa Ferris and the Independent Kathy Sinnott.[7][8] Kelly was a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection.

Though he promised he would see out his five-year term in the European Parliament, Kelly allowed his name to go forward as a Labour Party candidate at the 2011 general election. He ran in the Tipperary North constituency and was successful, receiving 9,559 first preference votes (19.8%) and securing the third and final seat at the expense of Fianna Fáil's sitting TD, Máire Hoctor. Phil Prendergast replaced him as MEP for the South constituency.

When the new coalition government was formed Kelly joined the junior ministerial ranks as Minister of State for Public and Commuter Transport.[9][10][11] Kelly began receiving death threats during this period.[10]

In May 2014, Kelly confirmed that he would be contesting the vote for a new deputy leader of the Labour Party following the resignation of Eamon Gilmore as party leader.[12] He was elected as deputy leader of the Labour Party on 4 July 2014.[13] On 11 July 2014, he was appointed Minister of the Environment, Community and Local Government.[14] In January 2015, it was announced that his leader Joan Burton had nominated Kelly for the roles of Labour's director of elections and chair of Labour's national campaign committee ahead of the upcoming general election.[15]

His involvement in Irish Water was extremely controversial during his tenure as minister.[16][17] Brendan Ogle of Right2Change called his comments on water 'arrogant',[18] with Ruth Coppinger T.D describing some his remarks as 'delusional and unbelievably arrogant'. Paul Murphy TD described plans to take water charges from wages was a 'bullying tactic'. Murphy also compared him to Nelson from 'The Simpsons'.[19][20] Jonathan O'Brien TD described him as 'arrogant Alan' in September 2015.[21] He received death threats on a regular basis during his tenure as minister.[4] As Minister, Kelly announced a two year rent freeze to combat the housing crisis.[22] Kelly supported the introduction and use of modular housing.[23] He said that "blockages" had made solving the housing crisis difficult.[24] A law brought in by Kelly which was criticised by the Irish Planning Institute (IPI), who said that it would increase ministerial planning powers over local authorities and could significantly change how planning operates in Ireland. Speaking on the This Week programme, councillors opposed to the law said that it was a "power grab", and claimed it could significantly limits the planning powers of local government.[25] In November 2014, the Independent reported that Kelly had received death threats. Also in November 2014 he claimed that he had received four death threats from "anonymous warriors" in a single week.[26][27] He claimed that Irish Water was necessary.[28] Kelly personally that he received many death threats and described references to him by the pejorative nickname 'Calamity Kelly' by anonymous government colleagues as cowardly.[29] Kelly's constituency office received a bomb threat in November 2014.[30] In December 2014 it was reported that a staff member who answered a call was told "a bullet will be put in his head before the end of the day. And we'll come down and put a bullet in your head too, you rich f**k. We won't be paying water charges."[31][32] A threatening letter sent to his office in 2015 containing a 'suspicious powder' was declared a hoax by the Gardai and the Defence Forces.[33] EU Commissioner Phil Hogan moved to distance himself from the controversies with Irish Water by stressing that Kelly was now in charge of water.[34] Barry Cowen claimed in relation to a policy change that "the issue with the policy is that everytime Alan Kelly picks up a phone to a journalist, his policy for Irish Water changes and it’s become absolutely farcical."[35] In December 2015 Kelly became emotional as he strongly denied claims that he had leaked information about the Labour Party to the media. A number of Labour TDs identified him as the source of a leak of an internal analysis which suggested that Labour would lose up to 20 seats at the upcoming general election.[36]

Kelly attracted further controversy following a January 2016 interview in the Sunday Independent headlined 'Alan Kelly: "Power is a drug . . . it suits me"'.[37][38] He later clarified the context in a June 2020 interview with The Mirror, saying; “I did say those words, but everybody forgets about the dot, dot, dot in the middle. I’ve nothing against the journalist now, but if you read it, power is a drug, it suits me, there’s a dot, dot, dot in the middle. The conversation was about how some people are always in opposition and will never want to go into government. Some people, you know, being in government suits them. They’re able to handle it or deal with it, or whatever. That was the conversation and I suppose power, being in power, being in government are interchangeable words, so that was the context of it. But when you’re explaining you’re losing".[39]

Kelly attracted controversy for his former association with John Delaney of the FAI and denied claims that Delaney was stopping people and asking them to vote for him during the 2016 general election campaign. Delaney had asked people to support Kelly on Midwest Radio. Kelly insisted that having Delaney support him was not a form of cronyism.[40][41][42][43][44] Former Green Party TD Dan Boyle described opposition to Delaney's support of Kelly as "Irish hypocrisy".[45] He denied that he was 'derailing' the Labour Party's general election campaign, after party figures said that he was being brought up by voters as an issue. Kelly said that he had not heard any complaints from members or supporters.[46] Mary Lou McDonald in a TV3 debate claimed that Kelly had “zero credibility” among people who were looking for housing.[47] He was successful in his campaign and was re-elected.[48] Following the election, Kelly remained Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government in an acting capacity during prolonged talks on government formation. On Sunday 24 April 2016, he represented the government at the official U.S. commemoration of the Centenary of the Easter Rising in Manhattan, New York. Kelly criticised Fine Gael's handling of Irish Water during the negotiations.[49]

Shortly afterward, on Friday 13 May 2016, Kelly announced his intention to seek leadership of the Labour Party.[50] However, he failed to attract a nomination from his parliamentary colleagues, resulting in the unopposed appointment of Brendan Howlin as the new leader.[51][52][53] Kelly was not present at the conference at which Howlin was announced as leader.[54][55] Grassroots efforts to put pressure on members of the parliamentary party were unsuccessful. The parliamentary party also decided not to nominate any candidates for the position of deputy leader, leaving Kelly's previous position vacant. When asked by Hot Press if he felt 'shafted', he replied saying; "Yes. I was pretty annoyed about what happened. It was a difficult period but I’ve moved on. There are no issues. I don’t bear grudges. But you don’t forget. You put it inward and you use it for motivation – and you move on." In the same interview he said that it was 'wrong' that the grassroots membership couldn't have a say.[4][56] In Spring 2017, Kelly was approached to join Fine Gael by the Tipperary organisation, which he declined. A source believed to be close to Kelly confirmed this to be true but said that "Alan has time and time again said that Labour values are in his DNA and that's certainly true. He's always talking about workers and the value of work. He is certainly not one of those who just pander to the welfare or liberal agendas that Labour has become so associated with. His ambition is to drag the Labour Party back towards what he believes in rather than ever leave it".[57]

In September 2017, Kelly called for the HPV vaccine to be given to all schoolboys in Ireland. The vaccine's roll-out among Irish girls had recently been subject to news coverage following controversy over its alleged side effects.[58] In December 2017, Kelly asked the Minister for Justice if his phone was being tapped.[59]

In November 2017, Kelly was criticised by his Labour colleagues after he warned leader Brendan Howlin that he has less than six months to turn the party’s fortunes around.[60][61] In August 2018, Kelly challenged incumbent Brendan Howlin for his party's leadership.[62][63][64] His challenge failed due to lack of support from his parliamentary colleagues. The Independent described his efforts to become leader as 'persistent'.[65] At the Labour Party think-in in Drogheda that year, he said “We need a moment to reconnect with working people. We are the Labour Party. We are not the Liberal Party.”[66] Also that month, in an interview with the Sunday Independent, he said that the Labour Party was portraying an "absence of visible leadership" on economic issues affecting ordinary people. He also said that "Some people say that politics shouldn't be about personalities. That's nice in theory but simply wrong in practice. Leadership in politics has always been and forever will be about strong personalities that represent political values and generate support for them from the public. Yes that involves teamwork within a party but that party has to be led with passion, energy and conviction." He said that "Labour can no longer be part of a cosy consensus within Ireland. We must return to our roots with vigour and concern ourselves above all else with the problems of economic inequality. That must be our political crusade. Only then can we begin to regain the trust of those that the party exists to represent".[67]

In 2020, Kelly was re-elected to represent the Tipperary constituency during the February general election, obtaining 13,222 first preference votes (9.6%) and thus securing the fourth of five available seats.[68] He was publicly backed by women's health campaigner Vicky Phelan during the election.[69] As of 2020, Kelly was Labour's spokesperson on health.[70]

After Brendan Howlin's intention to stand down as party leader following the 2020 general election, Kelly was nominated by two of the party's six TDs; Seán Sherlock and Duncan Smith. Kelly was also publicly supported by former Labour TDs Jan O'Sullivan and Willie Penrose. Launching his election bid, Kelly said that a complete rebuild of the Labour Party was needed.[71] On 3 April 2020, he was announced as the new leader of the Labour Party, having won 55% of the vote.[72] Kelly became noted for his outspoken style following his election as leader.[73] In May 2020, he appeared to rule out going into a coalition government.[74] That same month, he quoted author George Orwell in his criticism of health services during the COVID-19 lockdown.[75] He went on to say “Very simply… if we got what the Green Party did in relation to seat numbers, I think you’d have a government in Ireland by now. But we only got six seats unfortunately".[76] In a June 2020 interview in The Mirror, he said that; “I want to get the Labour Party back into a substantial position for the next electoral contests, whether it’s local, European or general. I want to get the party into that position by being completely reorganised across the country which is my forte, which is something that I really strongly do, getting really strongly organised.” He said in the same interview that he didn't 'envision' himself being in politics at the age of 60 and that having an interest in IT, he would like to get involved in green technologies and similar areas.[39] Kelly claimed in September 2020 that the Labour Party will never be irrelevant. In the same interview Kelly acknowledged the amount of media coverage he was receiving despite not being the official leader of the opposition, saying “I notice how upset Sinn Féin get with the volume of coverage I get in the media," he says. "It just encourages me.” [77] In October 2020, he said that Micheál Martin had six weeks to 'save Christmas'.[78]

Kelly was criticised in December 2020 after a photo of him appeared showing him not wearing a mask on the Luas in Dublin. Kelly apologised, saying that he was distracted while watching a match on his phone.[79][80] He was named the Irish Times ‘TD of the Year’ for 2020 by Miriam Lord.[81]

Alan Kelly has been nicknamed 'AK47' for his quick temper and aggressive style.[82][83][84] He was described in a 2020 article in Laois Today as someone who "not only likes his soubriquet but relishes in his characterisation of someone who shoots from the hip, takes no prisoners and gets things done".[85] RTE and the Progressive Brief have described him as 'tenacious'.[86][87] Newstalk ranked 'The Alan Kelly Rap' as the No.1 Irish election song ahead of the 2020 general election.[88]

Kelly is believed to be opposed to the 'liberal' and 'welfare' agendas that are said to be associated with the modern Labour Party.[57][66] The Irish Times described his election as Labour Party leader as a defeat for the party's 'liberal' wing.[89] The Laois Today and the Business Post made the implication in 2020 that he was not part of the 'liberal' wing of the party.[85][90] In a 2020 interview with the Irish Independent, an anonymous party politician described him as "authentic to the traditional old Labour".[91]

In a Hot Press interview in 2017, he described himself as a practicing Catholic and said that he is very liberal on 'most issues'. He stated that he was opposed to the legalisation of prostitution, but was in favour of the legalisation of marijuana.[4]