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FINE GAEL TD Joe McHugh has announced that he will not be contesting the next general election.
In a statement, McHugh said he made the decision to step away from politics in order to spend more time with his family.
“The last two years have given us all some time for reflection, and it is after a significant period of reflection and following much consideration, I have decided I will not be seeking a nomination to stand in the next General Election,” he said.
“The reason for this is a simple one. I have three children and, as they grow older, I want to be around more and available to them.
“Politics is a 24/7 job that demands absolute commitment. I have given politics everything I could throughout my career and it has been my greatest honour to serve as a TD representing the people of Donegal in Dáil Éireann.
I have always given my full commitment to my role as a public representative and this won’t change in this current Dáil, however, after the next election, I want to focus more on my family life.
McHugh has been a Fine Gael TD for Donegal since 2016, having been a TD in the Donegal North-East constituency between 2007 and 2016.
He served as Minister of State for a number of departments from 2014 to 2017 and was Government Chief Whip from 2017 to 2018.
He also served as Minister for Education and Skills from 2018 to 2020.
McHugh said he will continue to serve his constituency until the next general election and is making his intentions clear well in advance to give Fine Gael time to select a replacement.
“I will continue to work closely with the Fine Gael organisation, and I know with the determination we have in the party, among our members and our County Councillors, we will present a strong team in the county in the next election,” he said.
He thanked Tánaiste Leo Varadkar for appointing him Government Chief Whip and later, Minister for Education and Skills.
“This appointment – which bridged a gap of almost 70 years since the last Fine Gael TD from Donegal Pa O’Donnell served at Cabinet – was an incredible honour and, as a former teacher and youth worker, I relished the opportunity to take on such a role,” he said.
He also thanked Enda Kenny for appointing him as Minister of State at the Department of Culture with responsibility for Gaeilge, Gaeltacht and the Islands, which he served as until 2018.
He said he remains committed to Mica redress and will continue to work in the Dáil on this crucial issue, as well as all the other issues affecting Donegal.
“Everything that I have achieved has been with the help and support of both the Fine Gael organisation and so many people in the wider community in Donegal.
“I want to thank all those who have given me such support and encouragement over the years, I deeply appreciate it. I also want to thank and acknowledge the hard work and dedication of all those who have worked with me in the office.
“It is an enormous privilege to be a public representative. It is an honour and a pleasure to be able to serve your community, your county and your country.”
In a statement, the Tánaiste thanked McHugh for his work “for successive Governments, for Ireland, for Fine Gael and for his constituents”.
“I am very sorry to hear that Joe will not be contesting the next General Election but having discussed it with him, I understand his reasons,” Varadkar said.
He said that he and McHugh were elected to the Dáil together in 2007 and served on the Fine Gael front bench in opposition and as Ministers in Government.
“It was an honour as Taoiseach to appoint him to the office of Chief Whip & Minister for the Gaeltacht and subsequently as Minister for Education. Joe is one of the most compassionate and kindest people in a profession that is often far from kind.
He said Fine Gael will select a candidate to replace McHugh next year once the Boundary Commission has reported.
“Joe will continue to serve as a TD for Donegal and remains in the important role of Chairperson of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs.”
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This opinion piece is a little disingenuous in leading with “China is going carbon neutral” which is an alleged aspiration for 2060, rather than the present reality, that it is that now and up until 2030 they are intending to reach peak emmisions, in other words pump ever more emmisions into the atmosphere, up to the maximum they can produce.
It’s a little like an alcoholic claiming to be going sober, while in reality intending to not only continue drinking, but to increase their intake of alcohol to as much as they can possibly drink for the next twenty years…..
I think the US has way more than just carbon neutral targets to think of when it comes to China. That seems like the smallest issue when compared to the human rights issues, aggressive territorial expansion and lest we forget the initial Covid cover up that made the world as bleak as it is today.
But you know what? Great. If the worlds biggest polluter thinks it can get a handle of things in 40 years, then that’s one less thing the world needs to be concerned about. They disproportionately pollute the world by land (the dams to influence countries downstream), sea (200 million cubic tonnes of waste was dumped from them into the water in 2018) and air (28% of global emissions) and this needs to stop.
@Paul Cunningham: let’s not forget that they produce all that waste and CO2 making things we buy. We have outsourced manufacturing pollution to China so we can pretend to be cleaner.
@Ivan Connolly: your right added to that is greed by the west of the wealthy % 70 years ago Ireland had a few manufacturers now considerably less the same with Europe
@Paul Cunningham: Until China became the power it is now , the U.S. as the major industrialised nation on earth had no problem in being the worst polluter in the world. As for territorial expansion think you would want to look at the U.S. interference in South America and the Middle East. The fact that China is near matching the industrial might of the U.S. has America rattled..The fact the U.S. backed the wrong horse and lost China still rankles them.
@Donal Desmond: we get it dude you hate America ffs the funny thing is your probably American and if you are I can gurrentee 100% that you are democrat
So is the issue that the USA doesn’t offer any “climate ambitions”? Because their actual climate results are quite impressive. In the last 15 yrs they’ve seen the largest drop in emissions of any nation on earth, just slightly below the reduction seen for the whole EU. Meanwhile China and India have seen unprecedented rise in theirs. While the USA dismantles coal plants, these other nations build them. It’s all fine for China to claim it will reach some imaginary target in 40 yrs (including 10 more yrs of record breaking growth) but I have more confidence in nations that show results. Trump may be a dud with regards to climate change but his nation isn’t. And fortunately, unlike Xi, Trump isn’t a dictator and therefore states that don’t agree with his laissez faire approach to the environment are free to pursue a different path. And some of those states are enormous. If we broke the USA into 50 countries then California, if it was a country, would still be the 4th largest economy in the world, just behind Germany. And like Germany, California is a global leader in green policies and changes. I get that some people prefer it when nations make popular climate promises (without any actual plan or political will to see through to fruition) but I prefer results and I think many within the USA has done this.
“introduction of a robust state security law in Hong Kong.”
The introduction of a police state you mean.
Quite a few euphemisms used in this article.
He mentions the economic miracle from 1978 but no mention of the millions murdered before 1978 during the ‘Great Leap Forward’.
It’s sad that so many on the left, due to their hatred for Trump, are now extolling the ‘virtues’ of the Chinese police state and it’s one party dictatorship.
China is the worst human rights abuser and the biggest polluter on earth bar none.
@Will: You realize the miracle or 1978 involved the wet outsourcing all of its manufacturing emissions to China.
How about china go eating bats neutral first and we’ll go from there…
@Darren Byrne: i d i o t
China has nearly 250 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired power now under development, more than the entire coal power capacity of the United States
@Owen: When you’re the workshop of the world that tends to happen. 18,000 kms of high speed rail built between 2008 and 2020
The Journal heard Joe Biden say it on last debate so must be true
Trump declaring to open back up the coal mines and let the good times role back to his numpty supporters.china has the resources and man power to completely dominate the electric vehicle market.something Europe Russia and America will struggle with
@snotser: go see your Doctor ASAP tell him you have Trump Derangement Syndrome TDS for short.. best of luck in your recovery
Anyone bashing American while defending China have to be paid to do so.
Per head of population the US is probably still the worlds largest polluter. If the Chinese do go renewable they will be such a big player that they will dictate the terms of trade on use of fossil fuels by other nations. We will all be forced to end fossil fuel use quickly. The chinese will be more secure as they will no longer depend on foreign energy supply imports (oil.) This is why Ireland should go for green energy now – its cheaper, its produced locally, doesn’t require taxpayer subsidies of about 300 million euros a year to oil companies and its use will, along with similar policies worldwide, give our children a fighting chance of handing on a habitable planet to our grandchildren.
Per head of population the US is still the worlds largest polluter. If the Chinese do go renewable they will be such a big player that they will dictate the terms of trade on use of fossil fuels by other nations. We will all be forced to end fossil fuel use quickly. The chinese will be more secure as they will no longer depend on foreign energy supply imports (oil.) This is why Ireland should go for green energy now – its cheaper, its produced locally, doesn’t require taxpayer subsidies of 300 million euros a year to foreign oil companies and its use will, along with similar policies worldwide, give our children a fighting chance of handing on a habitable planet to our grandchildren and avoid human extinction.
Per head of population the US is probably still the worlds largest polluter. If the Chinese do go renewable they will be such a big player that they will dictate the terms of trade on use of fossil fuels by other nations. We will all be forced to end fossil fuel use quickly. The chinese will be more secure as they will no longer depend on foreign energy supply imports (oil.) This is why Ireland should go for green energy now – its cheaper, its produced locally, doesn’t require taxpayer subsidies of 300 million euros a year to foreign oil companies and its use will, along with similar policies worldwide, give our children a fighting chance of handing on a habitable planet to our grandchildren and avoid human extinction.
But there’s no votes in carbon neutral. In America is a moot point.
One true utterance from Trump has been that wind and solar power are just scams. Every KW they generate has to be backed up by something else. Follow the money. Who are the big, big pushers of renewables.? Answer, the big fossil fuel corporates. They know they will have us all over the metaphorical oil barrel, for filling in the big gaps.
There is only one power source that has any chance of saving us from run away climate catastrophe and that is a mass move into Gen 4 nuclear. www. bene.ie
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