Dermot Ahern

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Dermot Christopher Ahern (Diarmuid Ó hEachthigheirn; born 2 February, 1955) is an Irish politician and Minister for Foreign Affairs since September 29, 2004. He is a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála for Louth.

Early & private life

Dermot Ahern was born in Drogheda, County Louth in 1955. He was educated at the Marist College in Dundalk and later attended University College Dublin. He subsequently qualified with a degree in law from the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland before embarking on a successful career as a solicitor.

Ahern currently lives in Blackrock in Dundalk with his wife and their two children. His pastimes include playing golf and windsurfing. His skill at the latter is apparent as he is a former Ulster windsurfing champion. Ahern is also a former chairman of Blackrock United soccer club.He was also treasurer of Dundalk F.C. Supporter's Club.

Early political career

Ahern was born into a family that had no association with party politics whatsoever. He himself first became involved in politics at a young age, becoming a member of Louth County Council in 1979 as a Fianna Fáil representative. He served on that authority until 1991. Ahern was elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1987 general election and has retained his seat ever since. The following year he was appointed assistant government chief whip by Taoiseach Charles Haughey. While this was largely an unimportant and thankless role that did not even hold junior ministerial rank, Ahern worked well in his first government job, by assiduously kowtowing to Haughey.

Three years later in 1991 the Minister for Finance, Albert Reynolds, failed in his attempt to oust Haughey as Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader. Ahern was a staunch Haughey loyalist who supported the embattled leader throughout the leadership challenge and was rewarded by receiving promotion to the post of Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach with special responsibility as Government Chief Whip. Ahern was simultaneously appointed to the position of Minister of State at the Department of Defence. In February 1992 Haughey was forced to resign and Albert Reynolds eventually succeeded in becoming party leader and Taoiseach. Ahern’s abject loyalty to Haughey counted for nothing with Reynolds and he lost his ministerial position and returned to the backbenches for the entire duration of the Fianna Fáil-Labour government.

In late 1994 Bertie Ahern (no relation) succeeded Albert Reynolds as leader of Fianna Fáil. Ahern once again returned to the senior ranks of Fianna Fáil becoming chief whip of the party. In 1997 Ahern was sent to London to check out rumours that another senior party member, Ray Burke, had received a payment from Joseph Murphy. The claim was denied and Burke was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs two days later following the return to power of Fianna Fáil. Burke later served a jail sentence for corruption. Since that episode Ahern has taken a strong stance on the issue political corruption in Ireland - being the only member of government and Fianna Fáil to publicly call for an end to the link between business and politics with an outright ban of corporate and trade union donations to political parties.

Cabinet career

1997–2002: Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs

Following the 1997 general election a Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats came to power and Ahern was appointed Minister for Community, Social & Family Affairs. He worked hard in this portfolio and secured more funds for his department due to the privatisation of Telecom Éireann, arguing that these funds should be secured for future pensions requirements. As Social Affairs Minister Ahern also introduced the largest social welfare and pension increases in Irish history. He also achieved pension rights for Irish people who had emigrated from Ireland prior to 1953.

2002–2004: Minister for Communications, Marine & Natural Resources

Following the return of the government at the 2002 general election Ahern was appointed Minister for Communications, Marine & Natural Resources. In this post he was highly critical of the perceived failures of management and unions in the main telecommunications provider Eircom. He was an extremely interventionist minister in a telecoms market which, in his opinion, had experienced market failure. He introduced a system of Policy Directions to the telecoms regulator mandating, amongst other things, Flat Rate Internet Access. Ahern also devised and began implementing Ireland's Broadband Action Plan which entailed the government building an alternative fibre infractructure and co-location facilities. He sanctioned a reform package for public service broadcasting in Ireland and introduced a Charter for Ireland's national broadcaster Radio Telefis Éireann. He introduced a programme to provide free broadband internet access for every primary, secondary and special needs school in the State. Against the odds Ahern secured EU recognition and protection of the Irish Box, an area of Irish territorial waters out of bounds to Spanish and Portuguese fishermen.

2004–present: Minister for Foreign Affairs

Following a cabinet reshuffle in 2004 Ahern received the coveted position of Minister for Foreign Affairs, thus becoming the first Louth TD to hold that position since Frank Aiken in the 1960s. Shortly into his tenure in April 2005 Ahern was appointed one of four special envoys for United Nations reform by the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan. In effect the four envoys acted as Mr Annan's 'eyes and ears' around the world and presented proposals for reform at a special UN summit in September 2005. Ahern acted as envoy to European countries, on top of his other duties as minister.

Ahern has spoken of the 'Third Phase' in Irish foreign policy which he calls "Active Neutrality". This is a vision of non-aligned Ireland taking up its international responsibilities by acting as a bridge between the developed and developing world, and by acting as a world leader in conflict and disasters. In this regard he took an extremely outspoken line on the crisis in Darfur, calling on the international community to 'wake up to the reality of rape, murder and destruction in the region. More recently Ahern has announced the establishment of an Irish Volunteer Corps and a Rapid Response Corps which would harness existing expertise amongst the Irish public to assist in the developing world. Ahern is also a committed environmentalist who, for many years has recycled and composted all domestic waste and has stated that, in foreign policy terms, ‘the single greatest, economic, environmental, geopolitical issue now facing us is climate change.’

As Foreign Minister, Ahern has been heavily involved in the Northern Ireland peace process. Like many others in his party he describes himself as a republican and stated at the 2006 Seán Moylan commemoration in Cork that ‘as an Irish Republican my main personal and political goal is to live to see the unity of Ireland.’

As Foreign Minister Ahern has also lead a national campaign to secure a path to permanent residency for the 25,000 to 50,000 undocumented Irish citizens resident in the United States. He has also introduced free passports for Irish senior citizens and has called for a comprehensive ban on the use of cluster munitions. Ahern was the first government Minister to call for a constitutional referendum on the issues arrising from the supreme court decision on statutory rape, five months before it became government policy.

Fianna Fáil Northern Strategy

In 2007 Ahern established the Fianna Fáil Northern Strategy Committee with the aim of developing the strategy for Fianna Fáil's expansion into Northern Ireland.

Future

In an interview given to the Sunday Business Post on 29 January, 2006, Ahern confirmed that he would stand in the forthcoming Fianna Fáil leadership contest. His promotion to the position of Minister for Foreign Affairs certainly enhanced his national, and international, profile. Should a leadership contest develop, the only credible candidates would be Brian Cowen (Minister for Finance) or Dermot Ahern, with Cowen currently in a lead position.

Political career

References

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