Emmet Stagg
 |
Emmet Stagg | |
|---|---|
| Teachta Dála | |
| Assumed office 1987 | |
| Constituency | Kildare North |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1 October 1944 |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Political party | Labour Party |
| Alma mater | Kevin Street College of Technology, Dublin. |
Emmet Stagg (born 1 October 1944) is an Irish Labour Party politician. He is currently a Teachta Dála (TD) for Kildare North and Labour Party Chief Whip and Spokesperson for Nuclear Safety.
Emmet Stagg was born at Hollymount, County Mayo and educated at Ballinrobe C.B.S. and Kevin Street College of Technology. Stagg was formerly a Medical Technologist at Trinity College, Dublin before entering into full-time politics. In 1979 he was elected to Kildare County Council, serving almost continually until 2003. Stagg was first elected to Dáil Éireann in the 1987 General Election. Since then he has served as Front Bench Spokesperson on a number of areas, including Agriculture (1987-1989) and Social Welfare 1989-1992).
During the 1980s and early 1990s, Stagg was a prominent figure within the internal politics of the Labour Party, being viewed as one of the leaders of the left-wing faction within the party opposed to coalition with Fine Gael, and as a prominent opponent of the then party leader Dick Spring. In the Fianna Fáil-Labour coalition government formed after the 1992 general election, he became Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, with Special Responsibility for Housing and Urban Renewal.
While holding this position he became the subject of a major tabloid press scandal after Gardaí found him loitering in an area of Dublin' Phoenix Park used by underage male prostitutes. Stagg was questioned by the Gardaí but no charges were filed against him.[1][2]
In 1995, he was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Energy and Communications in the newly formed Rainbow Coalition Government.
He is currently the Labour Party Chief Whip and Spokesperson on Nuclear Safety.
His brother, Frank Stagg, was a Provisional Irish Republican Army member who died in a British prison in 1976 while on hunger strike.
References
- ^ Kevin Myers (26 January 2006). "An Irishman's Diary". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
the real turning point in Ireland came when government minister Emmet Stagg was not summarily sacked after coming to Garda attention while loitering in an area of the Phoenix Park used by male prostitutes
- ^ John Downing (25 September 2005). "Labour is taken to book". The Irish Examiner. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
the controversy surrounding then-Minister of State, Emmet Stagg, in 1994 when gardaí apprehended him in dubious circumstances in The Phoenix Park
External links
- Labour Partys page on Stagg
- Electoral history of Emmet Stagg (ElectionsIreland.org)