ANALYSIS:A career spanning the PDs, FF and various portfolios has been ended by chronic back pain, writes STEPHEN COLLINS
MARTIN CULLEN’s decision to quit politics is another blow for a Government that has been rocked by controversies and resignations in recent weeks. The manner of his departure reflects a stormy life in politics that has seen considerable personal achievement accompanied by strife and disappointment.
The loss of a TD is potentially more damaging to the Government than the loss of a third Minister in less than a month and will raise further questions about how long the Coalition can last in the face of the enormous problems that beset it.
Martin Cullen was first elected to the Dáil as a Progressive Democrat TD in 1987 and the road that took him into the Cabinet as a senior Fianna Fáil Minister in the 21st century was a long and winding one.
While Cullen achieved his political ambition of becoming a senior Cabinet Minister, that success was accompanied by events that took a huge personal toll on him.
His resignation as a Minister last night was expected, but the decision to resign his seat came as a bolt from the blue which will further destabilise a vulnerable government.
Controversy appeared to dog Cullen at every step, from his defection to Fianna Fáil after Mary Harney’s accession to the PDs’ leadership, to the controversies that met him as a Minister. Ironically, he ended up serving harmoniously in cabinet with Harney, the woman he could not work with as party leader.
Cullen was one of the PDs’ success stories of the 1987 election when he was elected as a TD for Waterford at the first attempt at the age of 32 as one of 14 deputies for the new party. His election to the Dáil should not have been that great a surprise, as his father and grandfather had served as Independent mayors of Waterford. Following in the family tradition, Cullen was elected to Waterford City Council in 1991 and was mayor in 1993/1994.
His rise to national prominence was not as smooth. Cullen lost his Dáil seat after only two years, during the first PDs meltdown of 1989 when more than half the party’s TDs failed to return to Leinster House.
Following the coalition deal between Charles Haughey and Des O’Malley that brought the PDs into coalition with Fianna Fáil, Cullen was nominated to the Seanad as one of the Taoiseach’s 11. His decision to become a paid lobbyist for the private bus operators’ organisation led to a fierce row with party leader O’Malley.
However, from his foothold in the Seanad, he rebuilt his political base in Waterford and made it back to the Dáil in the general election of 1992.
That election saw a significant recovery in the fortunes of the PDs, who increased their number of seats from six to 10. With Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party agreeing on a coalition, the PDs went into opposition.
The founding leader Des O’Malley stepped down the following year and, in a strongly contested election, Harney defeated Pat Cox who was both a TD and an MEP. The following year, Cox sensationally left the party to fight for his Munster European seat as an Independent against O’Malley.
During the campaign, Cullen accompanied Cox on a canvass in Waterford. It was an indication of his growing unhappiness with the PDs and, a few months later, he left the party to join Fianna Fáil.
Fianna Fáil was catapulted into opposition not long after Cullen joined with a new leader, Bertie Ahern, taking over from Albert Reynolds. The convulsion helped the new TD integrate in the party and the new leader was strongly supportive of him.
When Fianna Fáil came back to office in 1997, Cullen was appointed as minister of state with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, the most senior of the junior ministerial posts.
After the general election of 2002, Cullen achieved his ambition of being made a cabinet minister and was promoted by Ahern to the senior portfolio of the environment. However, his tenure at the department was dogged by two serious controversies that imposed a huge personal and political strain on him.
One controversy related to the plan to introduce electronic voting which he vigorously pursued. Electronic voting was actually instigated by Cullen’s predecessor, Noel Dempsey, who introduced the system on a pilot basis in three constituencies in the 2002 election.
Cullen adopted the plan with enthusiasm and electronic voting took place in a number of constituencies in the second Nice referendum in the autumn of 2002.
About €50 million was spent on electronic voting machines for the entire country and the system was due to come into operation in the local elections and European elections of 2004.
However, a fierce controversy developed over the plan, with claims that the system was open to tampering. A commission was established to look into the issue and found that there was a problem with verification. The Government was forced to drop the scheme and Cullen suffered political damage for the waste of public money.
He also become embroiled in controversy over the scale of the fees paid to his public relations adviser Monica Leech, at the Department of the Environment.
This controversy eventually resulted in Leech and Cullen suing some media outlets for defamation.
In a recent speech, Cullen said defamatory media coverage of the groundless allegations almost destroyed his life, that of his family and of businesswoman Leech.
“It was like waking up every morning and being raped,” he said of his treatment at the hands of the media.
“I have never recovered from it and probably never will.”
In the cabinet reshuffle of autumn 2004 he was appointed as minister for transport and presided over “Transport 21”, the Government’s €34.4 billion investment plan for infrastructural development over a 10-year period.
After the general election of 2007, he moved to social welfare and, following the accession of Brian Cowen to the Taoiseach’s office in May 2008, he was appointed Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism.
In recent months, Cullen has suffered from the recurrence of a chronic back injury which has left him in obvious pain.
His decision to resign from Cabinet came as no surprise, in the light of the obvious physical distress that has afflicted him in recent times.
But his decision to leave the Dáil has shocked his colleagues and weakened the Coalition.