The Labour Party senator, Mr Pat Gallagher, has announced his surprise resignation from politics.
It comes as a blow to his party which had hoped he would regain his Dail seat in Laois-Offaly in the next general election.
One of Labour's younger hopefuls, Mr Gallagher (36) is resigning to take up a senior post with Westmeath County Council as Director of Community and Enterprise. He said yesterday that as this post was at assistant county manager level, it required that he resign from his seats in the Seanad, on Westmeath County Council and on Tullamore Urban District Council.
He said another reason for the decision was that, as he was now the father of two small children, "I have found it increasingly difficult to combine my involvement in national politics with family commitments".
Mr Ruairi Quinn, the Labour Party leader, said yesterday he had accepted Mr Gallagher's decision with regret.
"Pat Gallagher's resignation represents a loss not just to the Labour Party but to politics generally," he said. Mr Gallagher was formerly the manager of Tullamore Community Training Workshop before his election to the Dail in 1992. He lost his seat in the 1997 general election.