Former Fine Gael minister Michael Ring has announced he will not be seeking re-election after three decades in the Dáil and 45 years in politics.
Mr Ring (70) said “I want to see if there are other things I want to do and can do” and “I think now is the right time”.
In an interview with The Irish Times he looked back at his long career and outlined his view that the election should be called in autumn with a vote transfer pact between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
The Mayo TD is the latest in a series of Fine Gael politicians to announce their impending departure in recent months including former taoiseach Leo Varadkar and former tánaiste Simon Coveney.
Mr Ring’s announcement means at least 15 of the 35 Fine Gael TDs elected in 2020 will not be seeking a return to the Dáil.
Explaining his decision Mr Ring said: “I feel that Fine Gael with Simon Harris now [as leader], we’re in a better place than they were a number of months ago.”
He had been hesitant about bowing out “because I felt Fine Gael might need all the seats they can get”.
Mr Ring has been returned as a TD at every election since 1994 and he believes there is “no question” he would be re-elected if he was putting his name forward again.
But he said his family “feel it’s time for me now to call it a day”, adding: “I have grandchildren and I want to spend a bit of time with them”.
He was “very sick” last Christmas with pneumonia and that “kind of made me think a bit”.
Mr Ring also said: “Do I want to be there at 76 years of age in the Dáil? I don’t think I do.
“I’ve given it everything at both constituency level and national level.”
The Westport man was first elected to the local town council in 1979 and later won a seat on Mayo County Council.
He regards his “against-all-the-odds” victory in the 1994 byelection caused by local TD Pádraig Flynn departing for Brussels as Ireland’s European commissioner as one of his greatest achievements in politics.
He was up against Mr Flynn’s daughter Beverley Flynn, who was expected to take the seat.
Mr Ring said his win – along with then-Democratic Left politician Eric Byrne taking a seat in another byelection in Dublin – meant the numbers were there to form the Rainbow Coalition led by Fine Gael when the Fianna Fáil-Labour government that was in power at the time collapsed.
When Fine Gael returned to Government in 2011 after the economic crash Mr Ring’s constituency colleague, the former taoiseach Enda Kenny, appointed him as minister of state for tourism and sport.
He had a long-running local rivalry with Mr Kenny, saying: “We were like Mayo and Galway. When the match was on we belted and took swipes out of one another but when the election was over we were great friends.”
As minister of state Mr Ring promoted The Gathering and Wild Atlantic Way initiative. He said “we got tourism back on its feet again”.
In 2017, Mr Ring was promoted to cabinet by then taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who appointed Mr Ring to head the new Department of Rural and Community Development as its first senior minister.
He said he set up several schemes designed to boost rural Ireland, such as the Town and Village Scheme and the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund, and he provided funding for Tidy Towns organisations, agricultural shows and men’s and women’s sheds.
Asked about the biggest change in politics since he was first elected to the Dáil, he said local radio was only just starting in 1994 and a fax machine was used to communicate between his offices in Mayo and Dublin.
He added: “Then we got social media and that has been the biggest downside to civilisation – not even just to politics – social media has destroyed the world. It has destroyed people’s lives.”
Mr Ring said it is “the biggest single challenge to democracy” and there needs to be “rules and regulations” brought in internationally and in Ireland as “there is a lot of fake news on it and there’ll be more and nobody will know what’s true and not true. That needs to be dealt with and dealt with quickly.”
He said that under Mr Harris’ leadership of Fine Gael the party has “gone back to basics. That’s why we did so well in the local election because he listened to us on immigration, he listened to us on the other issues and I think he’s brought Fine Gael back into the middle ground again.”
He said after the local election that the general election should be held in October and this view has not changed, though Mr Ring said it is “a matter for the Taoiseach and the Government”.
But he said: “I fought two winter elections in February and winter elections are never simple.”
Mr Harris and the other Coalition leaders have repeatedly said the intention is for the Government to complete its full term into early 2025.
Mr Ring said he thought the two main parties in the Coalition will be in government together after the election and there should a “formal pact” for vote transfers between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
He did not speculate on who would replace him on the Fine Gael ticket in Mayo.
Minister of State for Housing Alan Dillon will be expected to seek to retain his own seat there but Fine Gael is expected to run multiple candidates in the county.
Mr Ring said: “Everyone’s replaceable, including me.”
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