Ciarán Cannon

Ciarán Cannon TD
Minister of State for Training and Skills
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 March 2011
Preceded by	New Office
Teachta Dála
Incumbent
Assumed office February 2011
Constituency	Galway East
Senator
In office August 2007 – February 2011
Constituency	Nominated by the Taoiseach
Leader of the Progressive Democrats
In office 17 April 2008 – 24 March 2009
Preceded by	Mary Harney
Succeeded by	Noel Grealish (Interim)
County Councillor for Loughrea
In office June 2004 – August 2007
Succeeded by	Michael Maher
Personal details
Born	19 September 1965 (1965-09-19) (age 46) Galway, Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Political party	Fine Gael
Other political affiliations	Progressive Democrats (2003–09)

Ciarán Cannon (born 19 September 1965) is an Irish politician and the current Minister of State for Training and Skills.^[1] He is a Fine Gael Teachta Dála (TD) for Galway East since the 2011 general election. He is a former leader of the Progressive Democrats (PD) party.^[2]

Before entering politics he was CEO (2002–06) and secretary (2000–02) of IHCPT – The Irish Pilgrimage Trust. In 2002 he was honoured as one of the Galway People of the Year.

He was elected to Galway County Council in 2004 to represent the Loughrea electoral area with 1,307 first preferences. He was an unsuccessful PD candidate at the 2007 general election for the Galway East constituency.^[3] He received 3,321 first preferences in the 2007 poll.

He was nominated by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern to the Seanad as a Progressive Democrats member in 2007.

Cannon was elected as Leader of the Progressive Democrats on 17 April 2008.^[4] Cannon was the first leader of the Progressive Democrats to come from Seanad Éireann. At his first press conference as party leader Cannon stated that he believed "there was passion, commitment, talent and knowledge within the PDs' ranks to stage a big comeback".^{[citation needed]}

However, after speculation increased that Noel Grealish, one of the party's two TDs, intended to leave the party, he announced in September 2008 that a party conference would be held on 8 November 2008 at which he would recommend that the party disband.^[5] At that conference, the delegates present voted by 201–161 that the party should disband.^[6]

Cannon announced on the 24 March 2009 his decision to resign the leadership of the Progressive Democrats and on the same day he joined Fine Gael.^[7]

On 10 March 2011, he was appointed as Minister of State for Training and Skills.

References

1. ^ "Ciarán Cannon appointed Minister of State". GalwayNews.ie. http://www.galwaynews.ie/18228-ciaran-cannon-appointed-minister-state. Retrieved 12 March 2011. 
2. ^ "Mr. Ciarán Cannon". Oireachtas Members Database. http://www.oireachtas.ie/members-hist/default.asp?housetype=1&HouseNum=23&MemberID=2253&ConstID=210. Retrieved 7 February 2009. 
3. ^ "Ciarán Cannon". ElectionsIreland.org. http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=354. Retrieved 7 February 2009. 
4. ^ "Cannon elected leader of the Progressive Democrats". The Irish Times. 17 April 2008. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0417/breaking3.htm. Retrieved 17 April 2008. 
5. ^ "PD Conference to decide party's future". RTÉ News. 16 September 2008. http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0916/pd.html. 
6. ^ "PDs vote to wind up political party". RTÉ News. 8 November 2008. http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1108/pd.html. Retrieved 8 November 2008. 
7. ^ "Cannon formally joins Fine Gael". RTÉ News. 24 March 2009. http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0324/cannonc.html. Retrieved 25 March 2009. 

External links

• Ciarán Cannon's page on the Fine Gael website

Oireachtas
Preceded by Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)	Fine Gael Teachta Dála for Galway East 2011–present	Incumbent
Political offices
New office	Minister of State for Training and Skills 2011–present	Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by Mary Harney	Leader of the Progressive Democrats 2008–2009	Succeeded by Noel Grealish (Interim)

Persondata
Name	Cannon, Ciaran
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	19 September 1965
Place of birth	Galway, Ireland
Date of death
Place of death