Redemption for Mayo TD as he is to be re-appointed to Cabinet

MAYO TD Dara Calleary is set to be back at the Cabinet table and be appointed Minister of Social Protection, Rural Affairs and the Gaeltacht by Taoiseach Micheál Martin. 

Minister Calleary will take up the job almost four-and-a-half years after he resigned as Minister for Agriculture in the aftermath of the Golfgate controversy. 

Welcoming the news, Ballina-based Fianna Fáil councillor Annie May Reape told The Mayo News that his appointment was 'very good for rural Ireland'. 

The Fianna Fáil politician was first elected to Dáil Éireann in the 2007 general election. He served in two different junior ministries during his first term as a TD. 

The Ballina native was re-elected in 2011 as Mayo’s only Fianna Fáil TD amid an electoral wipeout for his party during the Great Recession. 

On the opposition benches, Minister Calleary was his party’s Spokesperson for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation from 2011 to 2016 and Spokesperson for Public Expenditure and Reform from 2016 to 2018. 

In 2018, he was appointed Deputy Leader of Fianna Fáil and was his party’s chief negotiator during talks which led the historic coalition between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party in June 2020. 

Following the formation of that government, Minister Calleary was appointed government chief whip for a Cabinet which was heavily criticised for lacking TDs from the West of Ireland. 

Within weeks of the new government being formed, Minister Calleary was appointed Minister for Agriculture following the resignation of Deputy Barry Cowan, who is now an MEP for Midlands North-west. 

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However, Minister Calleary’s tenure as a Cabinet minister was brief. In August, just weeks after taking office, he attended a dinner at the Station House Hotel shortly after newly introduced Covid-19 restrictions banned spectators from all sporting events and limited the number of people who could gather indoors. 

Several other high-profile figures attended the dinner organised by the Oireachtas Golf Society, including Mayo Fine Gael Senator, Paddy Burke, and EU Commissioner Phil Hogan. 

Minister Calleary resigned shortly after the gathering in the midst of public outcry after the Irish Examiner revealed it had taken place. 

Galway District Court later found that no Covid-19 restrictions had been breached by the attendees or the organisers. 

Last summer, Minister Calleary obtained a junior ministry when he was appointed Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital Transformation and Company Regulation.

In the recent general election, he was elected a TD for the fifth time after exceeding the quota on the eighth count.

Prior to entering politics, Minister Calleary was involved in the banking and business sectors. He studied Business and Politics at Trinity College Dublin and attended St Muredach’s College Ballina and St Oliver Plunkett National School.

His father, Seán Calleary, was a TD for Mayo East from 1973 to 1992, while his grandfather, Phelim Calleary was a TD for Mayo North from 1952 to 1969.