Labour TD for Tipperary, Alan Kelly. Photo: Niall Carson/PA.
Former Labour leader Alan Kelly has said he wants to be back in Cabinet and confirmed he is running to keep his seat in the Dáil in the imminent general election.
There was speculation the Tipperary TD would not run again after he resigned as leader of the Labour Party over two years ago.
However, in an interview with the Nenagh Guardian, he said he would be running again and said he wants to be back around the Cabinet table.
Mr Kelly previously served as Minister of the Environment, Community and Local Government and said he wants to see the Labour party back in Government.
He stepped down dramatically as leader of the party and Dublin Bay South TD Ivana Bacik was elected unopposed as the new leader.
Mr Kelly said then he resigned because he lost the “collective confidence” of his colleagues, citing a poor performance in polls as well as the inability to shake the memory of the 2011-2016 government, when Labour was in power.
The details around his resignation have never been fully revealed.
“I would be lying about what happened two and a half years ago if I said I wasn’t disappointed. It was a huge disappointment to me,” said Mr Kelly.
“But time has healed a lot of that and I have had good conversations with party colleagues and they are delighted I am going to continue my work as a TD for the Labour Party.”
He said he is “well placed” to be a Cabinet minister because he has done the job before and said coming back to Cabinet is a “huge motivation and ambition for me”.
“I was last a minister when the country was in dire straits, financially. Imagine what could be done now with the feast of money available to the country.”
“I believe the Labour Party will be there when it comes to negotiations in the formation of a new coalition and if we do get in, I plan on making sure that North Tipperary is at the top table when it comes to decision making,” he said.
The TD said he made the decision to run again against a challenging family background as his parents and brother have been ill and his two children are in secondary school.
