Jim Mitchell (politician) - Political Career

Political Career

At the 1977 general election he was elected to the 21st Dáil for the new constituency of Dublin Ballyfermot. With the party's loss of power in 1977, the new leader, Garret FitzGerald appointed Mitchell to the Party's Front Bench as spokesman on Labour. At the 1981 general election Mitchell was elected for the Dublin West constituency and Fine Gael dramatically increased its number of seats, form a coalition government with the Labour Party. On his appointment as Taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald caused some surprise by excluding some of the older conservative ex-ministers from his cabinet. Instead young liberals like Mitchell were appointed, with Mitchell receiving the high profile post of Minister for Justice. The Fine Gael–Labour government collapsed in January 1982, but regained power in December of that year. Mitchell again was included in a FitzGerald cabinet, as Minister for Transport. He also served as Minister for Posts and Telegraphs (later titled Minister for Communications) from 1982–87.

Mitchell, who was seen as being on the social liberal wing of Fine Gael was however out of favour with John Bruton when he became Fine Gael leader in 1990. When Bruton formed the Rainbow Coalition in December 1994, Mitchell was not appointed to any cabinet post.

Mitchell contested and won Dáil elections in 1977, 1981, (February and November) 1982, 1987, 1989, 1992, 1997. He also ran unsuccessfully for the European Parliament in the 1994 and 1999 elections. He also was director of elections for Austin Currie, the Fine Gael candidate, in the 1990 presidential election. In 2001, Bruton was deposed as Fine Gael leader, and replaced by Michael Noonan. Mitchell served as his deputy from 2001 to 2002.