Willie O'Dea

Willie O'Dea (born 1 November 1952) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He is the current Minister for Defence and a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Limerick East constituency.^[1]

Early and private life

O'Dea was born in Limerick and raised in Kilteely, County Limerick. He was educated at the Patrician Brothers College in Ballyfin, County Laois,and University College Dublin where he studied law.^[2] He qualified as a barrister at King's Inns, Dublin. He has an accountancy qualification from the Institute of Certified Accountants. He worked as both a barrister and as an accountant before embarking on a career in politics. He also spent some time lecturing in the Law faculty in University College Dublin and in the University of Limerick.^[3]

O'Dea is married to Geraldine Kennedy.^[4] He writes regularly for the Sunday Independent and occasionally for other national newspapers.^[5] He has been a consistent poll topper in the Limerick East constituency.

Early political career

O'Dea first held political office as an Fianna Fáil member of Limerick County Council. He served on that authority until 1992. He first stood for election to Dáil Éireann at the 1981 general election but was unsuccessful. He was elected to the Dáil on his second attempt at the February 1982 general election for the Limerick East constituency.^[6] Like his former constituency colleague Desmond O'Malley, O'Dea was opposed to Charles Haughey's leadership throughout the 1980s, becoming a member of the so-called Gang of 22. Following the foundation of the Progressive Democrats and the defection of Desmond O'Malley in 1985 O'Dea became the only Fianna Fáil TD in the five-seat Limerick East constituency. He failed to secure a ministry under Charles Haughey.

Ministerial career

In 1992 Albert Reynolds succeeded Charles Haughey as Fianna Fáil leader and following a widespread cabinet reshuffle O'Dea, became a Minister of State at the Department of Justice. Following the collapse of the Fianna Fáil-Labour Party coalition government in 1994 O'Dea found himself on the opposition benches. After the 1997 general election with the help of the Progressive Democrats, Fianna Fáil were back in government and O'Dea was appointed a Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science. Here he had responsibility for Adult Education and the School Transport Scheme. He oversaw reform and increased investment in adult education and back to school initiatives, starting with the launch of Green Paper in November 1998.^[7]

Following the 2002 general election O'Dea became Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform with special responsibility for Equality Issues. His main function during this period was the passage of the Disabilities Bill, which the Government had been forced to withdraw in early 2002 in the teeth of opposition from the disability sector.^[8] After a number of changes, including a form of the independent assessment of needs demanded by the disability organisations,^[9] O'Dea reintroduced the Bill in September 2004 along with an implementation package.^[10]

Following a cabinet reshuffle in September 2004 O'Dea became Minister for Defence. His tenure commenced as the army deafness compensation issue was starting to come to an end. Within weeks of his appointment he was estimating that the full cost of the Army Deafness claims against the State would be in the region of €300 million.^[11]

In November 2005 O'Dea encountered some controversy when he photographed during a media event at the Curragh Camp pointing an automatic pistol at a photographer. The photo appeared on the front page of The Irish Times the following day. O'Dea apologised saying that it was not his intention to glamorise gun crime.^[12]

During his term as Minister for Defence, O'Dea has prioritised two particular issues: the recruitment of more women to the Defence Forces^[13] and the promotion of more serving non-commissioned members to the commissioned ranks, often called "promotion from the ranks".^[14]

He also presided over Ireland's second tour in the Lebanon in late 2006 as part of UNIFIL 2 following Israel's attack on South Lebanon^[15] and participation in what he himself called "the most challenging mission"^[16] undertaken by the Irish Defence Forces: the EUFOR mission to Chad.^[17] The EUFOR Mission was commanded by an Irish General, Major-General Pat Nash before it was re-hatted as a UN mission MINURCAT in mid March 2009.^[18]

In May 2009, it was reported that Irish soldiers had been banned from playing football because the ground in Chad, was "too hard when they fall over".^[19][20][21]

Defamation case

In December 2009 he was forced to pay damages and apologised to Maurice Quinlivan, a Sinn Féin Councillor in Limerick and joint national treasurer for the party, for making "false and defamatory statements" during an interview with the Limerick Chronicle. He had earlier denied the allegations.^[22]

O'Dea and Limerick

O'Dea is highly identified with his native Limerick. Three main issues have dominated his recent pronouncements on Limerick: Shannon Airport, Dell and gangland crime.

In August 2007 he broke ranks with Cabinet colleagues to speak out against Aer Lingus's decision to cease London Heathrow Airport flights from Shannon.^[23]

In December 2008 O'Dea and Tánaiste, Mary Coughlan flew to Dell's Corporate HQ in Texas in a last ditch and ultimately futile attempt to stop the closure of Dell's manufacturing plant in Raheen, Limerick. Manufacturing was moved to Poland with the lose of about two thirds of the jobs at Dell's Limerick operation.^[24]

The slaying of two wholly innocent men in Limerick within months of each other: Shane Geoghegan and Roy Collins increased pressure on O'Dea locally, as a member of the Cabinet, to secure changes to the law and greater resources to tackle Limerick city's gangland crime.^[25]

References

External links

• Willie O'Dea's official website
• Willie O'Dea's page on the Fianna Fáil website