Pat Rabbitte

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Pat Rabbitte : biography

18 May 1949 –

Rabbitte gained strong public attention on 18 November 2010 when he angrily criticised the Minister for Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs, Pat Carey, when they appeared together on the Prime Time television programme. A recording of the outburst on the Internet was viewed 100,000 times in its first three days there.

Rabbitte was re-elected on the first count in the 2011 general election. His running mate Eamonn Maloney was also elected. On 9 March 2011, he was appointed as Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.

Ministerial career (2011–present)

Rabbitte was appointed Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources after the 2011 general election.

The journalist Fintan O’Toole, writing in The Irish Times in August 2011, criticised the lack of royalties system for gas and oil in Ireland. He claimed that "The State is about to sign away almost all our resources on terms by far the worst in the developed world". Rabbitte responded with a letter, claiming that the article was inaccurate. Rabbitte’s response was in turn criticised by Cian O’Callaghan, a Labour Party member of Fingal County Council, as "misguided".

During an edition of The Week in Politics broadcast in December 2012, presenter Sean O’Rourke asked Rabbitte if he had broken any campaign promises. Rabbitte said, "Isn’t that what you tend to do during an election?"

In government (1994–97)

In 1994 a new Rainbow Coalition government of Fine Gael, the Labour Party and Democratic Left came to power. Rabbitte was a member of the junior ministerial team, serving as Minister of State to the Government, as well as Minister for State at the Department of Enterprise and Employment with responsibility for Commerce, Science and Technology. During his tenure as a junior minister Rabbitte was instrumental in establishing an anti-drugs strategy as well as enacting legislation which gave the Credit union movement more authority. Rabbitte also decided to locate the proposed new state-backed Technology Campus for West Dublin, based on high speed telecommunication links, at CityWest Business Campus beside the N7 motorway, near Clondalkin.