Donal Creed

Donal Creed (born 7 September 1924) is a former Irish Fine Gael politician from Macroom in County Cork, who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for 22 years and as a junior government minister in the 1980s.^[1]

He served as Minister of State at the Department of Health from June to November 1981, in Garret FitzGerald's first coalition government. Creed stepped down from the Dáil at the 1989 general election,^[1] when his son Michael Creed held the seat for Fine Gael.^[2]

Career

He first stood as a candidate for Dáil Éireann at a by-election in March 1965 for the Cork Mid constituency following the death of the Labour Party TD Dan Desmond.^[3] The by-election was won by Desmond's widow Eileen,^[3] but at the 1965 general election in April that year Creed won the 4th seat in the four-seat constituency.^[4]

Creed was re-elected at seven further general elections, switching in 1981 to the new Cork North–West constituency when Cork Mid was abolished in boundary changes. From 1973 to 1977 he served as one of Ireland's first Members of the European Parliament (MEP), before MEPs were directly elected. Creed served on three of the European Parliament's committees: Agriculture, Public Health and the Environment, Regional Policy and Transport.^[5] He was also Chairman of Cork County Council from 1978 to 1979.^[6]

In Garret FitzGerald's first coalition government, he was Minister of State at the Department of Health from June to November 1981, and then at the Department of the Environment from November 1981 until the government was defeated in a budget vote in January 1982. Fianna Fáil was returned to power at the resulting February 1982 general election, but that government too was short-lived. When FitzGerald formed a new coalition government after another general election in November 1982, Creed was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Education, and held that post until a reshuffle in February 1986.^[7]

References