FINE GAEL Cork North Central TD and chairman of the Dáil public accounts committee Bernard Allen has said he will not contest the next general election.
Elected to the Dáil in 1981, Mr Allen served as a minister of state in the mid-1990s and was lord mayor of Cork in the late 1980s.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny praised him for “his outstanding role as chairman of the Dáil’s most powerful committee, the Committee of Public Accounts”, as well as “his exemplary public service over many years”. Mr Allen will retire on a TD’s pension of just under €50,000, plus an additional annual amount for his chairmanships of committees and a pension lump sum of approximately €160,000, along with a series of termination payments and a termination lump sum. He is also entitled to a minister of state’s pension of more than €10,900.
Between 1994 and 1997 he was minister of state at the Department of Education where he had responsibility for youth and support, and also at the Department of the Environment where he had responsibility for local government reform and urban traffic management. He was chairman of the Dáil’s sub-committee on European affairs between 2004 and 2007.
He previously worked as a laboratory technologist and has a diploma in chemical technology from University College Cork.
Of the 29 TDs who have announced they will not run in the election, 15 are from Fianna Fáil and seven from Fine Gael. Mr Allen’s decision to step down adds to the unpredictability in Cork North Central as he had been widely expected to hold his seat as Fine Gael attempts to win a second in the four-seat constituency.
His decision to retire paves the way for party newcomers, former lord mayor of Cork Cllr Dara Murphy from Glanmire and county councillor Pat Burton from Blarney, to mount a combined attempt for two seats.
The move may also benefit Labour as sitting TD Kathleen Lynch will try to pick up Mr Allen’s personal vote in working class areas of the north side.