PROFILE MÁIRE GEOGHEGAN-QUINN:She's been out of the limelight for a while, in a low-profile EU post, but the former Fianna Fáil TD who almost ran for Taoiseach is set to be Brian Cowen's choice to be our next EU Commissioner, writes JAMIE SMYTH
IS MÁIRE Geoghegan-Quinn set to make a dramatic return to frontline politics after more than a decade out of the limelight? The rumour mill in Leinster House and Brussels suggests there is a strong chance that the former justice minister, once tipped to become the first female taoiseach, could be appointed Ireland’s next EU commissioner.
Geoghegan-Quinn, known in Fianna Fáil circles as MGQ, was a powerful figure in Irish politics during the 1980s and 1990s, holding three senior cabinet posts during her 22-year tenure as a TD for Galway West. She is probably best remembered for her courageous and determined move to introduce legislation to decriminalise homosexuality in 1993. She stood down at the 1997 general election shortly after newspapers reported that one of her two sons had been expelled from school. “When politics demands – and wrongly demands – that a TD’s family members serve as expendable extensions of the elected members, I will not serve,” she said in her resignation statement.
Two years later, then-taoiseach Bertie Ahern appointed her to the European Court of Auditors, a low-profile EU institution that is usually considered a graveyard for former politicians. The 27 national members of the court spend their days checking how the EU spends its budget and ensuring that taxpayers’ money does not go to waste. The job carries a handsome salary worth more than €180,000 a year but, as court officials concede, it rarely gives a candidate the launchpad to win a post on the EU executive.
If she gets the nod from the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, it will be the second time Geoghegan-Quinn has been a trailblazer in Irish politics. In 1979 she was appointed the first woman cabinet minister since the foundation of the state in 1922 when the then-taoiseach Charles Haughey made her minister for the Gaeltacht. An appointment to the EU executive would make her the first Irish woman to hold the prestigious post.
European Commission president José Manuel Barroso’s call this week for “gender balance” in the commission is one of several factors tipping the scales in Geoghegan-Quinn’s favour. Just a handful of states have indicated they plan to appoint a woman to the EU executive, threatening to undermine a pledge by Barroso for a 50/50 split between men and women in his new team, which should take office in January.
“It is clear that a country that says it will consider nominating a woman, particularly one with a profile in Brussels, will increase its bargaining position to get a good portfolio,” says one senior commission official, who considers Geoghegan-Quinn a strong choice. Irish officials believe nominating a woman with cabinet experience and knowledge of the EU could help Ireland to get a good portfolio such as research and development or agriculture, which both command big budgets.
Geoghegan-Quinn’s nine-year stint at the Court of Auditors in Luxembourg, where she is responsible for auditing the EU’s external action budget, gives her an insight into EU politics. She also played a central role in Ireland’s presidency of the EU in 1990 when she chaired several ministerial meetings as minister of state for European affairs.
Critics cite her lack of visibility during her time in Luxembourg as a negative, even though court members are prohibited from making overt political statements. Unlike her colleagues from other member states, Geoghegan-Quinn has not been invited to present the body’s annual report to the Dáil, which would have explained how the court works and kept her profile up. However, colleagues at the court say she is dedicated, professional and has a good sense of humour, even swapping jokes via the internet.
A key point in Geoghegan-Quinn’s favour is that she is not a sitting TD. Cowen has already told several potential nominees – such as Mary Harney, Noel Dempsey and Dick Roche – that he cannot appoint them due to the coalition’s slim majority in the Dáil.
Former president of the parliament Pat Cox, who for a long time was the bookies’ favourite, does not fit Barroso’s requirement for gender balance. And, perhaps more importantly, he is not dyed-in-the-wool Fianna Fáil like Geoghegan-Quinn, whose father Jonny Geoghegan and godfather Gerald Bartley were both Fianna Fáil ministers. “This should be a Fianna Fáil job,” says one party activist, who notes Cowen’s instincts are tribal and this makes him unlikely to look outside the tent for the plum appointment.
Born in Carna in Connemara in 1950, Geoghegan-Quinn trained as a national teacher in Carysfort College in Blackrock before teaching for a period at Scoil Bhríde in Ranelagh. She married John Quinn when she was 23 and has two sons, Cormac and Ruairi. In her spare time she enjoys going to concerts, reading and writing. She wrote a novel, The Green Diamond, about four girls sharing a house in Dublin in the late 1960s, one of whose father is involved in politics. She later wrote a column for The Irish Times. Following the sudden death of her father in 1975 she fought and won a by-election in Galway West to take his seat. Intelligent, a good public speaker and charming, the young Geoghegan-Quinn caught the eye of Haughey, who brought her into cabinet during his first term as taoiseach from 1979 to 1981. But he kept her outside the cabinet in his second and third terms, noting to colleagues she was “bone idle” and not a big vote-winner – a factor that prompted Geoghegan-Quinn to become an opponent in the heaves to follow.
“She was a good minister but it is fair to say she wasn’t famous for being a big constituency worker and it was a tough constituency,” says John Cunningham, editor of the Connaught Tribune between 1984 and 2007. Despite her high profile she never made her seat safe, winning the five-seat Galway West constituency by just 235 votes in 1992. In 1991 Geoghegan-Quinn aligned herself with the so-called “country and western faction” within Fianna Fáil led by Albert Reynolds, which finally forced Haughey to step down as taoiseach.
Reynolds rewarded her by appointing her minister for tourism, transport and communications and a year later making her minister for justice.
An early sign of her political toughness came at a meeting with the Aer Lingus board of directors where she demanded changes at the airline. The showdown led to accusations from Fine Gael TD Austin Currie in the Dáil that the minister was “hand-bagging” the board of directors, a phrase that was ruled unparliamentary by the Ceann Comhairle. She showed courage by proposing legislation to decriminalise homosexuality in 1993. As a TD from a rural constituency she was well aware her progressive stance on homosexuality, as with her earlier promotion of family planning, could be used against her by rivals. “I found myself wondering what if it were one of my sons,” said Geoghegan-Quinn when explaining why she had proposed the legislation.
Her political star waned somewhat in the months that followed when the Fianna Fáil/Labour coalition fell apart following the controversial attempt to appoint Harry Whelehan as president of the High Court. She later withdrew from a Fianna Fáil leadership contest with Bertie Ahern on the day of the vote in 1994 when it became clear she didn’t have the votes to succeed. A few years later she announced her retirement from national politics when her teenage son became the centre of media attention.
“What affected me most was the impact on my family; I had my mind made up. It was disrupting family life too much . . . In Luxembourg you can walk around all day every day and only by chance bump into a colleague or someone from Cumann Gael. Outside of that you won’t meet anyone else who knows you,” she told a TG4 documentary in 2006.
If she is offered the commission job by Cowen, Geoghegan-Quinn will return to the forefront of politics and swap the relative anonymity of Luxembourg for the limelight in Brussels.
CV Máire Geoghegan-Quinn
Who is she?59-year-old former Fianna Fáil politician working at the European Court of Auditors.
Why is she in the news?She is the bookies' favourite to be Ireland's next EU commissioner.
Most likely to say:"I have a burning passion for Fianna Fáil and what it stands for."
Least likely to say:"Let's invite Hello! magazine to do a big spread on the family."
