Former Labour leader and minister Pat Rabbitte has confirmed he will not be running in the next General Election.
He informed his local constituency of the decision yesterday.
Mr Rabbitte was first elected to the Dáil in 1989 for the Workers' Party.
He was one of the founding members of the Democratic Left, which merged with the Labour Party in 1999.
He came from a trade union background and in the 1970s, was active in student politics and was formerly president of the Union of Students in Ireland.
He was a Minister of State in the rainbow government from 1994-1997.
@MartinaFitzg assesses Pat Rabbitte's decision not to contest the next general election. https://t.co/K5RE4dlh5E
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) July 6, 2015
Mr Rabbitte succeeded Ruairi Quinn as Labour Leader in 2002, having been elected by members of the party.
During the subsequent general election campaign he made a pre-election pact with Fine Gael known as the Mullingar Accord.
He stood down as Labour leader in 2007.
Pat Rabbitte has done the State distinguished service and will go down as one of the finest parliamentarians of this or any other generation
— Joan Burton (@joanburton) July 6, 2015
In the 2011 general election he got the highest number of votes of any Labour candidate when he was elected in Dublin South West.
Mr Rabbitte was then appointed as Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, but was dropped from the cabinet when Joan Burton took over as leader last year.
A recent poll by the party suggested he would retain the seat, however, he did not reveal his decision on whether or not to run until this evening.
