Brendan Smith

He was re-elected to the Dáil for Cavan Monaghan constituency at the 2016 Irish general election along with party colleague Niamh Smyth TD. In May 2016, he was appointed as Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade. The previous month he was appointed Chairman of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party. In January 2019, he announced he was seeking the Fianna Fáil nomination to contest the 2019 European elections for the Midlands North West constituency. He secured the nomination at a convention of Fianna Fáil party delegates in Longford in March 2019, but did not win a seat in the subsequent election. After the election Smith told a local radio station that the Fianna Fáil party had made a mistake in running two candidates rather than one, he also confirmed that he planned to run for the Dáil at the next election. At the 2020 general election he again won re-election to the Dáil.

Following the resignation of Dermot Ahern from the cabinet in January 2011, Smith was also appointed as Minister for Justice and Law Reform.

He was one of just 19 Fianna Fáil TDs elected to the Dáil, following the 2011 general wlection. He was initially appointed as the Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Education and Skills, serving from April 2011 to July 2012. In 2012, he was made party Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Trade, as well as Border Region Development. He held this position until the 2016 Irish general election.

In 2010, during his term as Minister for Agriculture, he offered free cheese to Ireland's poor via a European Union scheme that had been around since the 1980s. The public received Smith's announcement poorly and it was reported outside Ireland as the country became "a laughing stock internationally". Smith was then forced to defend his own scheme.

Following the 2007 general election, Smith became Minister of State for Children, succeeding Brian Lenihan Jnr in that position. On 7 May 2008, he was appointed as Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in Brian Cowen's cabinet. In July 2010, Smith launched the Food Harvest 2020 strategy. Its overall target to increase the value of Ireland's agri-food and fisheries exports by €5bn to reach €12bn by 2020. A September 2012 progress report on the Food Harvest 2020 strategy, found that farmers and other primary producers had passed the halfway mark towards meeting their 2020 targets.

Smith was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1992 general election for the Cavan–Monaghan constituency and has been re-elected at every subsequent election since. In the 28th Dáil, he was Government Whip on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs. In Bertie Ahern's 2004 cabinet reshuffle, Smith was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food with special responsibility for Food and Horticulture.

Brendan Smith (born 1 June 1956) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cavan–Monaghan constituency since 1992. He has served as Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade since April 2016 and Chairman of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party since May 2016. He previously served as Minister for Justice and Law Reform from January 2011 to March 2011, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 2008 to 2011, Minister of State for Children from 2007 to 2008 and Minister of State for Food, Forestry and Horticulture from 2004 to 2007.

Born in Cavan in 1956, Smith was educated at Bawnboy National School, St. Camillus College, Killucan, County Westmeath, and University College, Dublin, where he gained a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Economics. For 15 years he worked as special advisor to the Fianna Fáil politician and former Tánaiste, John Wilson.