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Proinsias De Rossa (born 15 May 1940) is an Irish Labour Party politician and former President of the Workers Party and subsequently leader of Democratic Left, and later, a senior member of the Labour Party. He was Minister for Social Welfare from 1994 to 1997. Since 1999 he has been a member of the European Parliament in the Party of European Socialists (PES) group.[1]
[edit] Early life and political activityBorn as Francis Ross in 1940 in Dublin, he was educated at Marlborough Street National School and Dublin Institute of Technology. He was politically active in Sinn Féin and the IRA from an early age, and was interned in Curragh Camp from 1956 until 1959 for his part in the IRA Border Campaign.[citation needed] He worked in his family's fruit and vegetable shop and later was employed as a postman and an encyclopaedia salesman. He took the Official Sinn Féin side in the 1970 split. In 1977 he contested his first general election for the party, which that year was renamed Sinn Féin the Workers Party (in 1982 the name changed again to the Workers Party). He was successful on his third attempt and was elected at the February 1982 general election as a Sinn Féin the Workers Party Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North West constituency. He retained his seat until 2002, when he did not contest the general election in order to devote more time to his work in the European parliament. [edit] Workers Party leadership and splitIn 1988, De Rossa succeeded Tomás Mac Giolla as president of the Workers Party. The party had been growing steadily in the 1980s and had its best ever electoral performance in the general and European elections held in 1989. The party won 7 Dáil seats with 5% of the vote. De Rossa himself was elected to the European Parliament for the Dublin constituency, where he topped the poll and the party almost succeeded in replacing Fine Gael as the capital's second-largest party. However the campaign resulted in a serious build up of the financial debt of the Workers Party, which threatened to greatly inhibit the party's ability to successfully ensure it would hold on to its gains. In 1992, long-standing tensions within the Workers Party pitting reformers, including most of the party's TDs, against hard-liners centred around former general secretary Seán Garland came to a head. Disagreements on policy issues were exacerbated by the desire of the reformers to ditch the democratic centralist nature of the party structures and remove any remaining questions about alleged party links with the Official IRA, a topic which had been the subject of persistent and embarrassing media coverage. De Rossa called a Special Ardfheis (party conference) to debate changes to the constitution. The motion failed to get the required two-thirds majority and subsequently De Rossa led the majority of the parliamentary group and councillors out of a meeting of the party's Central Executive Committee, splitting the party. [edit] Democratic LeftDe Rossa and the other former Workers Party members then established a new political party, provisionally called New Agenda. At its founding conference in March 1992 it was named Democratic Left and De Rossa was elected party leader. Later that year, he resigned his European Parliament seat in favour of Democratic Left general secretary Des Geraghty. Following the collapse of the Fianna Fáil–Labour Party coalition government in 1994, Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left successfully negotiated a government programme for the remaining life of the 27th Dáil. De Rossa became Minister for Social Welfare. He initiated Ireland's first national anti-poverty strategy, a commission on the family, and a commission to examine national pension policy. He defended in the Dail, the Soviet Union's treatment of its Jewish population despite evidence that they were doing their utmost to leave and were overrepresented among the ranks of imprisoned dissidents.[2] The 1997 general election resulted in the defeat of the outgoing coalition. At this point, the party had accumulated a very significant financial debt. In light of the co-operation achieved during the rainbow government, in practically all policy areas, Democratic Left decided to merge with the Labour Party. Labour leader Ruairi Quinn became leader of the unified party while De Rossa took up the symbolic post of party president, which he held until 2002. In 1999 De Rossa was elected at the European Parliament election for the Dublin constituency. He was re-elected at the 2004 European Parliament election. De Rossa did not contest his Dáil seat at the 2002 general election.[3] [edit] Libel actionIt was during De Rossa's period as leader of Democratic Left that Irish journalist Eamon Dunphy, writing in the Sunday Independent newspaper, published an article alleging that De Rossa was aware, while a member of the Workers Party, of the Official IRA's alleged illegal activities, including bank robberies and forgery. De Rossa sued the newspaper for libel and was awarded IR£300,000.[4] [edit] Work as an MEPDe Rossa has been a member of the European Parliament, with a strong pro-integration approach from a distinctly Social Democratic perspective, as well as a keen interest in foreign policy and social policy. He originally joined the Communist and Allies group before transferring to the PES. De Rossa was a member of the European convention which produced the July 2003 draft European constitution. [edit] Sources
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Categories: Irish atheists | Teachtaí Dála | Labour Party (Ireland) politicians | Democratic Left politicians (Ireland) | Workers Party of Ireland politicians | Irish Republican Army members 1922-1969 | Members of the 23rd Dáil | Members of the 24th Dáil | Members of the 25th Dáil | Members of the 26th Dáil | Members of the 27th Dáil | Members of the 28th Dáil | Irish republicans interned without trial | Members of the European Parliament from the Republic of Ireland | 1940 births | Living people | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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