John Curran (FF), former Government chief whip, lost his seat in Dublin Mid West in the Fianna Fáil meltdown of 2011. He had first been elected in the constituency in 2002 and retained the seat in 2007. In 2008 he was appointed a junior minister and had responsibility for the national drugs strategy and for rural affairs, in the former department of community, rural and Gaeltacht affairs. In 2010, following a cabinet reshuffle, Taoiseach Brian Cowen appointed him chief whip until the Government collapsed in 2011.