Quinn calls it quits
The Minister for Education and Skills made a statement outside Leinster House this afternoon, outlining his plans for the future.
The move comes ahead of a Cabinet reshuffle, planned for next week. He said that he will leave Cabinet on the day of the reshuffle.
He also confirmed that he will not run for a Dáil seat again. He is currently a TD for Dublin South-East.
“Ruairi does his own thing in his own way,” said Labour colleague Joe Costello after the news emerged and reports suggested he was leaving Cabinet before he was ‘pushed out’.
He has been a very creative, reforming Minister. It is Ruairí who would make the pro-active decision himself.
Quinn himself said that the decision came “sooner than I would have liked” but that it was not an act of petulance. He had widely been expected to be dropped from Cabinet in the reshuffle.
He did good work trying to reduce the number of faith-based (i.e. Catholic) schools in the country.