John O’Donoghue was first elected to the Dáil as a TD for Kerry South in 1987 at the age of 32.
He qualified as a solicitor and practised in his native Cahirciveen before entering the Dáil.
He had been elected to Kerry County Council two years earlier and served a council chairman in 1990/1991.
In November 1991 he was appointed by Charles Haughey as a junior minister at the Department of Finance with responsibility for the Office of Public Works. Less than three months later, after the departure from office of Mr Haughey, he was one of a number of ministers sacked by the newly installed taoiseach, Albert Reynolds.
When Bertie Ahern became leader of Fianna Fáil at the end of 1994 and the party went into opposition, Mr O’Donoghue was promoted to the front bench as the party spokesman on justice.
During the period of the rainbow government from 1995 to 1997 Mr O’Donoghue came to national prominence as a bitter critic of the then minister for justice, Nora Owen. Espousing a policy of “zero tolerance” for criminals, he pursued the minister relentlessly on every issue arising from her department.
After the 1997 election and the election of the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrat minority government Mr O’Donoghue was appointed minister for justice, equality and law reform and was one of the leading figures in that government.
Following the 2002 election he was moved to the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism where he served until the 2007 election. The move from justice, to make way for Michael McDowell, was regarded as a political reverse for Mr O’Donoghue.
His removal from the cabinet and his appointment as Ceann Comhairle after the 2007 election came as a bitter disappointment to Mr O’Donoghue. At the age of 52 he was said to be reluctant to be put into a position usually given to senior politicians at the end of their active careers.
Over the past few months Mr O’Donoghue became the subject of a number of reports in the Sunday Tribune, based on freedom of information requests, which focused on his expenses during his period as minister for arts, sport and tourism.
Last Friday the House of the Oireachtas released information detailing the expenses he has claimed since he took over the post of Ceann Comhairle. It revealed the same pattern of foreign travel and expenses that had applied to his term as a minister.
The involvement of Mr O’Donoghue’s wife, Kate Ann, in a high proportion of his foreign trips generated considerable deal of media attention. Mrs O’Donoghue is the daughter of the late Labour TD for Cork South West, Michael Pat Murphy.
The Opposition was initially reluctant to raise the issue of Mr O’Donoghue’s expenses because of the independence of the office of Ceann Comhairle and also because he had proved to be a fair and impartial chairman, following a controversial first day in office when he got involved in a wrangle with Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny.
However, following the disclosure of his expenses as Ceann Comhairle his position became untenable, mainly because in his role as chairman of the Oireachtas Commission he is charged with reforming the expenses regime that applies to all TDs.
