Constituency Wicklow Role Teachta Dala | Name Joe Behan Nationality Irish | |
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Born 30 July 1959 (age 65) Bray, County Wicklow ( 1959-07-30 ) Other politicalaffiliations Fianna Fail (until 2008) Previous office Member of Dail Eireann (2007–2009) | ||
Political party Independent politician | ||
Pat Casey TD, Cllr Joe Behan saying goodbye to Claire Darmody
Joe Behan (born 30 July 1959) is an Irish politician. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Wicklow constituency from 2007 to 2011. He was elected as a Fianna Fáil TD at the 2007 general election.
A teacher from Bray, Behan was a long-serving member of Bray Town Council and Wicklow County Council, winning and holding his seat at the 1999 and 2004 local elections. He was Cathaoirleach (chairman) of Wicklow County Council from 2006 to 2007, but in accordance with the abolition of the dual mandate under the Local Government Act 2001 he was deemed to have resigned his council seats when elected to the Dáil in 2007.
Behan unsuccessfully sought the Fianna Fáil nomination to contest the 1997 general election in the Wicklow constituency. He did not win a nomination until December 2006, when he was one of three candidates selected by the party for the 2007 general election. He was elected to Dáil Éireann at the 2007 general election.
On 17 October 2008 he resigned from the Fianna Fáil party in protest at the 2009 Budget. Despite claiming in his letter of resignation that: "I intend to adopt an independent stance on each and every issue which comes before the Dáil from now on.", he refused to join a Technical Group and largely continued to side with the government. He stood for re-election in Wicklow at the 2011 general election, but lost his seat receiving 6% of the first preference votes down from 14.5% in 2007.
In 2014, he announced that he would be standing as a candidate for the 2014 local elections for the Bray area. He was elected to Wicklow County Council on the first count, gaining 1776 (just over 14%) first preference votes, 384 more than the quota.
He is an independent candidate for the Wicklow constituency at the 2016 general election but was not elected.