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Cullen may resign Dáil seat this week
07 March 2010 By Pat Leahy Political Editor
Martin Cullen, the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, is expected formally to indicate his intention to resign from the cabinet to the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, this week.
There are fears in Fianna Fáil that Cullen will also resign his Dáil seat, prompting a by election in Waterford and further threatening the government’s shaky majority.
Cullen is suffering from a chronic back ailment, which has hampered his ability to do his job in recent months. He was hospitalised last week for treatment.
If he chooses to keep his Dáil seat, Cullen will be faced with two years of life as a backbench TD, where his attendance in Leinster House would be constantly required for Dáil votes. He will lose his staff and drivers when he steps down as a minister.
Cullen was previously a Progressive Democrats TD, but left the party for Fianna Fáil under Albert Reynolds. He has had a lengthy and sometimes controversial career since he was first made a junior minister at the Office of Public Works by Bertie Ahern in 1997.
Following the 2002 general election, he was appointed Minister for the Environment, but he quickly ran into political difficulty with the electronic voting programme he inherited from his predecessor, Noel Dempsey.
Cullen was later transferred to the Department of Transport and, after the 2007 election, to the Department of Social and Family Affairs. He became Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism when Brian Cowen was elected Taoiseach in 2008.
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