This article is from page 3 of the 2006-02-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
AFTER weeks of commentary, no comment, speculation and innuendo, the Junior Minister at the Department of Education and Science, Síle De Valera, has announced that she will resign her ministerial portfolio in December.
Last week the Minister was remaining tight lipped on her future as a junior minister, after the Taoiseach spoke of the party’s tradition, “that if somebody is not running in the next election and they hold a ministerial office . . . before the election they bow out.”
Hours following the broadcasting of these comments, the Fianna Fáil leader met with Deputy Sean Haughey in Dublin, who had expressed his disappointment at not receiving a junior post in the latest reshuffle of the junior cabinet.
That weekend, Minister de Valera issued a brief statement through her department saying that she “had a job of work to do” and “intended on completing it”.
Then last week, The Clare People ran a survey, which showed an overwhelming majority of Fianna Fáil councillors, felt their junior minister should resign her position.
On Wednesday, the minister issued another statement from her Department, giving the time of her resignation from the junior cabinet.
In her statement the minister said, “On November 6 last I went to the Taoiseach to advice him on my intention of not standing in the next election.
“At that meeting, I raised the matter of my stepping down as Minister of State.
“I was immediately told by the Taoiseach to carry on with the job in hand.
“I suggested that a time limit should be set for my stepping down as Minister of State. “The Taoiseach and I agreed that I would vacate that position in December 2006.
“To suggest that the Taoiseach was signalling for me to resign when he talked about the tradition in the party is a complete fallacy.
“The Taoiseach and I are friends for many years and we had an agreement on this issue dating back to November 6 2005,” she said.
Síle de Valera was first elected to the Dáil in 1977, and has represented the Clare constituency since 1987.
She has already outlined her plans to write her memoirs and to study for a PhD degree on her retirement.