Proinsias De Rossa (born May 15, 1940 in Dublin) is an Irish politician and former leader of the Workers Party and subsequently of Democratic Left. He was Irish Minister for Social Welfare from 1994 to 1997. Since 1999 he has been a member of the European Parliament where he is a member of the Party of European Socialists

Contents

1 Early political activity 2 Workers Party leadership and split 3 Democratic Left 4 Further reading 5 External links

Early political activity

De Rossa was educated at Marlborough Street National School and Kevin Street College of Technology in Dublin. He was politically active in Sinn Féin from an early age, and was interned in the Curragh from 1956 until 1959. 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 in February 1982 and retained his Dublin North-West seat until 2002, when he did not contest the general election in order to devote more time to his work in the European parliament.

Workers Party leadership and split

In 1988, De Rossa succeeded Tomás MacGiolla as president of the Workers Party. Under De Rossa's leadership, it achieved 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 almost succeeded in replacing Fine Gael as the capital's second-largest party.

In 1992, long-standing tensions within the Workers Party pitting reformers, including most of the party's Teachtaí Dála (members of Dáil Éireann), against hardliners centred around party general secretary Seán Garland came to a head. Disagreements on policy issues were exacerbated by the desire of the reformers to change the democratic centralist nature of the party structures and remove any remaining questions about party links with the Official IRA, a topic which had been the subject of persistent and embarrassing media coverage. The reformers called a party congress to debate changes to the constitution. When they failed by a narrow margin to reach the required two-thirds majority, De Rossa led them out of the congress, splitting the party.

Democratic Left

De 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. In his term of office he initiated Ireland's first national anti-poverty strategy as well as a commission on the family and a commission to examine national pension policy.

After the 1997 general election and the defeat of the outgoing coalition, Democratic Left merged with the Labour Party. Labour leader Ruairí 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 Proinsias De Rossa contested the European Parliament election in Dublin. He was elected and in the 2004 elections retained his seat. De Rossa did not contest his Dáil seat in the 2002 general election. He has been an active 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.

De Rossa was a member of the European convention which produced the July 2003 draft European constitution.

Further reading

• The Politics of Illusion: A Political History of the IRA, Henry Patterson, ISBN 1-897959-31-1
• The Workers Party in Dáil Éireann: The First Ten Years, The Workers Party, 1991

External links

• Website of Proinsias de Rossa (http://www.derossa.com/)
• Page on Labour.ie (http://www.labour.ie/prionsaisderossa)