The following is the statement issued yesterday by Mrs Maire Geoghegan Quinn:
"THIS is to announce that I will not be a candidate in the forthcoming general election. I have informed my party leader of my intention to leave politics when the election is called. I have also suggested to him that I relinquish my portfolio now, in order to give another spokesperson front bench experience in advance of the election.
"My close friends, colleagues and constituency organisation will learn of my intention today by letter. I believed it important not to share it with anyone, other than my husband and sons, in advance of discussing it with Mr Ahern, because people who have been close to me might have wished to dissuade me, and the decision is irrevocable.
"I have been fortunate, during my 22 years in politics, to have been offered the opportunity to break new ground and to contribute - I believe - to the emergence of a more confident, more broadminded Ireland. I am grateful to Jack Lynch who appointed me a parliamentary, secretary after two years in Dail Eireann, to Charles J Haughey, who made history in his appointment of me as Ireland's first woman Cabinet Minister since the foundation of the State, to Albert Reynolds, who selected me as the first female Minister for Justice and as the second Fianna Fail member of the team which moved the peace process forward after the IRA ceasefire, and to Bertie Ahern, who has vested generosity and trust in me since his election as leader of our party.
"Given the length of time I've been in politics, my continuing passion for what Fianna Fail stands for, and the friendships rooted in fun and strengthened in challenge, leaving is infinitely painful.
"However, in recent times, I have been concerned by the growing tendency to regard as fair game other members of a public representative's family to invade the privacy of spouses and children as if all of them had put themselves up for election, rather than the individual TD or senator. The clearest recent example involved my 17 year old son, named in prominently displayed stories in several newspapers after a school fracas. If his mother had been a homemaker, an architect or a businesswoman, this simply would have not happened.
"Politics demands - and rightly demands - energy, commitment, idealism and resilience. When politics demands - and wrongly demands - that a TD's family members serve as expendable extensions of the elected member, I will not serve.
"In the coming weeks, I hope to meet and thank in person those people who, for 22 years, have generously given me support, help, guidance and opportunity.
"I won't be making any further comment on this statement."