Alan Dukes

Alan Dukes (born April 20 1945) is an Irish politician, a former leader of the Fine Gael political party and former TD for Kildare South. He holds the distinction of being one of only five TDs to be appointed a Cabinet Minister on their first day in the D?il.

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Alan Dukes was born in Dublin and educated locally and at University College Dublin. In 1969 he became an economist with the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) in Dublin. He later moved to Brussels to work at the European Commission. In 1979 he stood as a Fine Gael candidate in the European elections in the Munster constituency. He was unsuccessful in his bid, but he stood again for Fine Gael in the 1981 general election. He won a seat and was elected to D?il ?ireann. On his first day in the D?il he was appointed Minister for Agriculture by the new Taoiseach - Garret FitzGerald.

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That particular government collapsed in February 1982 but returned to power in December of that year with Dukes becoming Minister for Finance. He faced a difficult task as Finance Minister at this time. Ireland was heavily in debt while unemployment and emigration were high. Many of Fine Gael's ambitious plans had to be deferred while the Fine Gael/Labour coalition disagreed on how to solve the economic crisis. He held that position until 1986 when he became Minister for Justice in a major Cabinet reshuffle. Dukes was elected leader of Fine Gael in 1987 following the resignation of Garret FitzGerald due to poor results in the general election. He also became Leader of the Opposition. As leader, Dukes launched the Tallaght Strategy. This was a major departure in Irish politics whereby Fine Gael would vote with the minority Fianna F?il Government if it adopted Fine Gael's economic policies for revitalising the economy. The policy worked but Dukes received little credit while Fine Gael was rewarded by the electorate with a gain of just four seats in the 1989 general election. Some Fine Gael TDs disagreed with Dukes' decision to support the Fianna F?il Government which led to resentment that would boil over in 1990. However, the party was further humiliated in the 1990 presidential election when its candidate, Austin Currie, came last out of three candidates. This defeat coupled with unease among some TDs with the Tallaght Strategy forced a heave against Dukes' leadership. He was subsequently replaced as party leader by John Bruton.

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In September 1992 the new leader, John Bruton, brought him back to the front bench. In February 1994 he became involved in a failed attempt to oust Bruton as leader and subsequently Dukes resigned from the front bench. In December 1994 Bruton became Taoiseach and Dukes failed to secure a ministerial position. Two years later in December 1996 Dukes returned as Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications following the resignation of Michael Lowry. In 1997 Fine Gael lost power and Dukes became Chairman of the Irish Council of the European Movement. In 2001 he backed Michael Noonan in his bid to become leader of Fine Gael. Noonan was successful.

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Dukes retired from politics after losing his seat in Kildare South in the general election of 2002 after Fine Gael's worst electoral defeat in its history. Alan Dukes is now committed to Europe where his passion always lay and was appointed as Director General of the Institute of European Affairs.

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1945: 1945 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar)....

Fine Gael: Fine Gael (IPA in English and in Irish, approximate English translation: Family of the Irish) is the second largest political party in both the Republic of Ireland and Ireland as a whole. It was founded on 3 September 1933 following the merger of Cumann na nGaedheal, the Centre Party and the Blue...

Political party: A political party is a political organization that subscribes to a certain ideology and seeks to attain political power within a government. The party's policies often represent an aggregation of interests within the party, which will inevitably vary considerably even between party members. In certa...

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