Михаил Нунан: Ирландиялық саяхатшының өмірбаяны мен мансабы

Irish Fine Gael politician (b. 1943)
the Fine Gael politician

Michael Noonan (born 21 May 1943) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Minister for Finance from 2011 to 2017, Leader of the Opposition and Leader of Fine Gael from 2001 to 2002, Minister for Health from 1994 to 1997, Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1986 to 1987, Minister for Energy from January 1987 to March 1987 and Minister for Justice from 1982 to 1986. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1981 to 2020. Noonan had been a member of every Fine Gael cabinet since 1982, serving in the cabinets of Garret FitzGerald, John Bruton and Enda Kenny. During these terms of office he held the positions of Justice, Energy, Industry and Commerce, Health and Finance. When Fine Gael lost power after the 1997 general election, Noonan remained an important figure in the party when he became Opposition Spokesperson for Finance. He succeeded John Bruton as Leader of Fine Gael and Leader of the Opposition in 2001, however, he resigned following Fine Gael's disastrous showing at the 2002 general election. After eight years as a backbencher, during which time he served as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny appointed Noonan to his front bench in 2010, to his former portfolio of Spokesperson for Finance.

The son of a local school teacher, Noonan was born in Limerick in 1943, but raised in Loughill, County Limerick. He was educated at the local National School and St. Patrick's Secondary School in Glin, before studying to be a primary school teacher at St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin. He subsequently completed a BA and H. Dip. in English and Economics at University College Dublin. He began to work as a secondary school teacher in Dublin. Noonan developed an interest in politics from his mother, whose family had been heavily involved in Fine Gael at local level in Limerick, and joined the Dublin branch of the party after graduating from university. He returned to Limerick in the late 1960s, where he took up a teaching post at Crescent College. Here he continued his involvement in politics, canvassing for the Fine Gael candidate, James O'Higgins, in the Limerick East by election in 1968, caused by the death of Donogh O'Malley.

Having been involved in the local Fine Gael organisation in Limerick since the late 1960s, Noonan first held political office in 1974, when he was elected as a member of Limerick County Council. Having built up a local profile he contested the 1981 general election for the party and secured a seat in Limerick East. Upon taking his Dáil seat, Noonan became a full time politician, giving up his teaching post and resigning his seat on Limerick County Council. Though Fine Gael formed a coalition government with the Labour Party, Noonan, as a first time TD, remained on the backbenches.

Fine Gael lost power following the first general election in early 1982, however, Noonan subsequently joined the party's new front bench as Spokesperson for Education. A second general election in late 1982 following the collapse of the Fianna Fáil government, saw another Fine Gael Labour Party coalition come to power. Just eighteen months after entering the Dáil, Noonan was appointed to the highly sensitive position of Minister for Justice. After a few weeks in office he revealed the illegal phone tapping of journalists' phones, carried out by the previous Fianna Fáil administration that preceded it in power. That government had authorised illegal phone tapping of the journalists Geraldine Kennedy, Bruce Arnold and Vincent Browne. Seán Doherty signed warrants for the taps while serving as Minister for Justice. Noonan introduced a new Criminal Justice Bill while also bringing in reforms in the Garda Síochána, the courts and the prison service and the facing down of a difficult prison officers' dispute. He also dealt with the wording of the controversial abortion referendum in 1983. Noonan, however, also presided over the justice ministry when inmates in an overcrowded and understaffed Spike Island prison set fire to the building. He threatened to take Bridget's mother Ellen to the Supreme Court, when she wondered why her daughter had contracted the disease. Noonan was forced to establish the Hepatitis C Tribunal of Inquiry and to issue several apologies for his handling of the affair. Noonan remained as Minister for Health until the 1997 general election. The Irish Times said "the woman involved had been infected by a negligent State agency, in the biggest health scandal since its foundation." When RTÉ broadcast a drama, No Tears, on Noonan's treatment of Bridget McCole, Justine McCarthy wrote in the Irish Independent that Noonan "compounded the perception of a heartless pedant by whingeing about the way he was depicted in the drama's final episode, broadcast on the same night that he declined to appear on Questions & Answers and when it was reported that yet another woman who was infected by the State had died from the illness." His home was picketed by anti abortion campaign group Youth Defence.

Despite increasing their seats to 54, Fine Gael returned to opposition and Noonan became Opposition Spokesman for Finance following the 1997 general election. In 2001, following a series of disastrous opinion polls, Noonan and his colleague, Jim Mitchell, tabled a motion of no confidence in the leader, John Bruton. The motion was successful in ousting Bruton as leader, with Noonan becoming leader of Fine Gael and Leader of the Opposition with Mitchell becoming deputy leader. Noonan avoided requests to be interviewed on TV and radio programmes, including some on RTÉ and Today FM, ahead of the leadership election. At the 2002 general election, Fine Gael had a disastrous result, dropping from 54 seats to 31 and a number of high profile front bench member losses, including Alan Dukes, Deirdre Clune, Alan Shatter and deputy leader Jim Mitchell. Noonan resigned as Fine Gael leader on the night of the election.

He was replaced by Enda Kenny, the runner up to Noonan in the 2001 leadership election. However, Noonan remained as a TD, and was re elected at the 2007 general election, and went on to serve on Kenny's Front bench. He was vice chairperson of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Constitutional Amendment and Children.

In May 2017, he announced he would be stepping down as Minister for Finance in the coming weeks when a new Taoiseach was appointed, and as a member of the Dáil at the next general election.

Noonan married Florence Knightley, a native of Castlemaine, County Kerry and a primary school teacher, in 1969. They had three sons: Tim, John and Michael, and two daughters: Orla and Deirdre. In May 2010, Noonan appeared on RTÉ's The Frontline to talk about his wife's battle with Alzheimer's disease. Florence Noonan died on 23 February 2012 of pneumonia.