Austin Deasy

rdf:langString Austin Deasy

rdf:langString Austin Deasy

rdf:langString Austin Deasy

rdf:langString Waterford, Ireland

rdf:langString Dungarvan, County Waterford, Ireland

rdf:langString Kathleen Keating

rdf:langString Fine Gael Teachta Dála for Waterford

rdf:langString Austin Deasy (26 August 1936 – 10 June 2017) was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Minister for Agriculture from 1982 to 1987. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Waterford constituency from 1977 to 2002. He was a Senator from 1973 to 1977, after being nominated by the Taoiseach. Deasy was born in Dungarvan, and qualified as a secondary school teacher from University College Cork in 1963. He later worked as a teacher at St. Augustine's College. In 1967, Deasy was elected to Dungarvan Urban District Council and Waterford County Council and served in a number of capacities on these councils before his appointment to Seanad Éireann in 1973 and his eventual election to Dáil Éireann. Immediately after his election Deasy was appointed to the Front Bench by Garret FitzGerald as Spokesperson for Fisheries. He remained in that position until 1979, when he became Spokesperson for Transport, Communications and Technology. After failing to be appointed to the government of Garret FitzGerald in 1981, Deasy returned to the Front Bench as Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs in 1982. Following the formation of a coalition government in 1982, Deasy was appointed Minister for Agriculture, a position he retained until the collapse of the government in 1987. Out of government, Deasy was included on the Front Benches of Alan Dukes and John Bruton, as a Spokesperson for Tourism and Transport, Spokesperson for Agriculture and Spokesperson for the Marine, until his return to the backbenches in 1993. Since then until his retirement from politics almost a decade later, he remained an outspoken critic of the Fine Gael Party and of its leadership.