Political Career
Lenihan was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1997 general election.
In Bertie Ahern's cabinet reshuffle of 2004, he was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs with special responsibility for Overseas Development and Human Rights. Lenihan restructured Ireland's international aid programme, creating Irish Aid, the Irish Government's programme of assistance to developing countries. Through Irish Aid, Lenihan administered a budget of almost a billion euros which is used to help developing nations thus continuing Ireland's tradition of reaching out to other post-colonial nations.
In 2007 he became Ireland's first minister for Integration and led a government initiative to deal with large volume immigration into Ireland which culminated with the publication of a new policy statement "Migration Nation".
As Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation he created a single budget line for science and technology funding as well as participating in the country's Innovation Task Force. As part of his role in the Ministry he participated in trade and investment missions, frequently presenting to top global companies who already invest in Ireland or were about to do so. He was a member of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Economic Recovery.
He lost his seat at the 2011 general election, with his first preference vote declining from 20.5% in 2007 to just 5%. He placed eight in the poll and was eliminated on the fourth count.
Read more about this topic: Conor Lenihan
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