LONGSTANDING TD AND former minister Michael Ring said he was offered a junior ministerial post from new Taoiseach Simon Harris but he did not accept it.
Speaking to Midwest Radio today, the Mayo TD said he had been offered two junior minister positions but had declined.
“I was offered a junior minister and I declined it on the basis that one of the commitments was that they were expecting me to stand for the next general election and I haven’t made up my mind in relation to that,” he said.
Ring also said that he had been a minister in the past and did not think that he could achieve much of note for the remainder of this Government.
“The second thing is, I have been a senior minister and I have been a junior minister,” he said.
“I was nine-and-a-half years a minister and I believe this government has only… about nine months to run.”
He said that if he was to take on a junior ministership now, he didn’t think he “could deliver on anything in 9 months”.
“I gave it a lot of thought… I felt at this stage of my life it wasn’t for me,” he said.
Regarding his political career, Ring said he was “at a crossroads” and would make a decision soon about whether or not he will contest the next election.
Ring – who been a TD since 1994 and served as Minister for Rural and Community Development – was speaking after Simon Harris formally became Taoiseach yesterday after a vote was passed in the Dáil by 88 votes to 69.
Yesterday he made new appointments to Cabinet and this morning filled the remaining Minister of State, or junior ministerial, positions.
When questioned about Ring’s claims, a government spokesperson said the Taoiseach is very happy with the team of ministers he announced both yesterday and today.
“All those appointed have earned their place and – as appointing the Minister’s of State a week earlier than would normally be the case shows – the government is hard at work,” they added.
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