Micheál Martin TD is the Fianna Fáil Party Leader. He has been a Teachta Dála for the Cork South Central constituency since 1989. Deputy Martin has held a number of senior cabinet positions in the Government of Ireland including Minister for Education, Minister for Health, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Minister for Foreign Affairs.
As Minister for Health and Children in 2004, he introduced a ban on tobacco smoking in all Irish workplaces. Ireland was the first country to introduce a full workplace smoking ban. As Minister for Foreign Affairs in 2009, Deputy Martin travelled to Latin America for the first time, and made the first official visit to Cuba by an Irish government minister. In 2010, he became the first Western foreign minister to visit Gaza since Hamas took control there. He was also the first Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ireland to successful bid for the chairmanship-in-office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
A graduate of University College Cork, Deputy Martin published the
findings of his thesis in ‘Freedom to Choose: Cork & Party Politics in Ireland 1918–1932,’ in 2009.
