The Minister for Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, has appointed her former election agent to fill a vacancy on the Heritage Council.
Mr Michael McNamara, a former psychiatric nurse who is now a farmer, has been named by the Minister to replace Mr Jim Reynolds, the gardener and writer, who has resigned.
Mr McNamara, who lives in Ballymaley, Ennis, Co Clare, has served as Ms de Valera's election agent for the Clare constituency. He is a member of the Fianna Fail Clare constituency delegation, and has been a close political contact of the Minister's since 1982. His wife, Mary, works in the Minister's constituency office.
Mr McNamara is a member of the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board and is also associated with the Clare Beekeepers' Association. His term of office will run until July 2000.
The Heritage Council was set up by Ms de Valera's predecessor, Mr Michael D. Higgins, in July 1995 to replace the non-statutory National Heritage Council dating from 1988. Chaired by Ms Freda Rountree, it has 17 members, who were appointed for five years.
The council has an uneasy relationship with the current Minister, particularly since the European Commission threatened court action over implementation of the EU Habitats Directive.
Earlier this summer six environmental non-governmental organisations, with which some of the Heritage Council members have close links, called on the Government to take action over the threat to some of the State's prime ecological sites.
