Justin Keating

Template:Short description Template:Use Hiberno-English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox officeholder Justin Pascal Keating (7 January 1930 – 31 December 2009) was an Irish Labour Party politician, broadcaster, journalist, lecturer and veterinary surgeon.<ref name="Former Labour Party Minister dies aged 79"/> In later life he was president of the Humanist Association of Ireland.

Keating was twice elected to Dáil Éireann and served in Liam Cosgrave's cabinet as Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1973 to 1977. He also gained election to Seanad Éireann and was a Member of the European Parliament. He was considered part of a "new wave" of politicians at the time of his entry to the Dáil.<ref name="Former Labour Party Minister dies aged 79"/><ref name="Ex-Labour minister Keating dies"/>

Early life

He was born in Dublin in 1930, a son of the noted painter Seán Keating<ref name="Ex-Labour minister Keating dies">In 1942 he was witness to and profoundly affected by the IRA assassination of Rathfarnham neighbour and friend Detective Sergeant Denis O'Brien, whose killer was subsequently executed largely on the basis of Keating's testimony. Template:Cite news</ref> and campaigner May Keating.<ref name=dib/> Keating was educated at Sandford Park School, and then at University College Dublin (UCD) and the University of London.<ref name=dib>Template:Cite web</ref> He became a lecturer in anatomy at the UCD veterinary college from 1955 until 1960 and was senior lecturer at Trinity College Dublin from 1960 until 1965. He was RTÉ's head of agricultural programmes for two years before returning to Trinity College in 1967.<ref name="Ex-Labour minister Keating dies"/> While at RTÉ, he scripted and presented Telefís Feirme, a series for the agricultural community,<ref name="Ex-Labour minister Keating dies"/> for which he won a Jacob's Award in 1966.<ref name="Former Labour Party Minister dies aged 79"/>

Political career

In the 1950s and 1960s Keating was a member of the Communist Irish Workers' Party. Keating was first elected to the Dáil as a Labour Party Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin County North constituency at the 1969 general election.<ref name=elecs_irl>Template:Cite web</ref> From 1973 to 1977 he served in the National Coalition government under Liam Cosgrave as Minister for Industry and Commerce.<ref name=oireachtas_db>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1973 he was appointed a Member of the European Parliament from the Oireachtas, serving on the short-lived first delegation.

During 1975 Keating introduced the first substantial legislation for the development of Ireland's oil and gas. The legislation was modelled on international best practice and intended to ensure the Irish people would gain substantial benefit from their own oil and gas. Under Keating's legislation the state could by right acquire a 50% stake in any viable oil and gas reserves discovered. Production royalties of between 8% and 16% with corporation tax of 50% would accrue to the state. The legislation specified that energy companies would begin drilling within three years of the date of the issue of an exploration license.

He lost his Dáil seat at the 1977 general election, but was subsequently elected to Seanad Éireann on the Agricultural Panel, serving there until 1981.<ref name="Ex-Labour minister Keating dies"/> He briefly served again in the European Parliament from February to June 1984 when he replaced Séamus Pattison.

Later life and death

In the aftermath of President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "World Without Zionism" speech in 2005, Keating published an op-ed in The Dubliner Magazine, expressing his views on Israel.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The article started by claiming that "the Zionists have absolutely no right in what they call Israel". Keating then proceeds to explain why he thinks Israel has no right to exist, claiming that the Ashkenazi Jews are descended from Khazars.

Keating died on 31 December 2009, at age 79, one week before his 80th birthday.<ref name="Former Labour Party Minister dies aged 79">Template:Cite web</ref> Tributes came from the leaders of the Labour Party and Fine Gael at the time of his death, Eamon Gilmore and Enda Kenny,<ref name="Former Labour Party Minister dies aged 79"/> as well as former Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach John Bruton.<ref name="Ex-Labour minister Keating dies"/>

External links

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