Peter Mathews (7 August 1951 – 27 February 2017) was an Irish economist and politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South constituency from 2011 to 2016.[1]
Initially elected as a Fine GaelTD for the Dublin South constituency at the 2011 general election,[2] he lost that party's parliamentary party whip in July 2013.[3] He left the Fine Gael party in October 2013 and sat as an Independent TD for the remainder of the 31st Dáil.
He was a qualified Chartered Accountant, and worked for Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) and ICC Bank. Before entering politics, he was a consultant on banking and finance, and a media commentator.[7]
On 14 March 2012, the Government was defeated in a vote taken at a meeting of the Oireachtas finance committee after numerous Fine Gael TDs went missing. The motion, tabled by Mathews who was then forced to vote against it following threats from his colleagues, proposed that Central Bank Governor Patrick Honohan be forced to appear before the Oireachtas finance committee by the end of the month.[8][9][10][11]
On 3 October 2013, he resigned from Fine Gael.[14]
Despite a diagnosis of oesophageal cancer, Mathews said he would still contest the 2016 general election.[15] However, he lost his seat.[2] Mathews died as a result of his cancer on 27 February 2017, aged 65.[16]
References
^"Peter Mathews". Oireachtas Members Database. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
^Regan, Mary (16 March 2012). "Man from the TV left with little to analyse". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 16 March 2012. In last year's general election, or so the Leinster House lore goes, a banker in a pinstripe suit would knock on the doors of homes in Dublin South and introduce himself by saying "you might know me from the Vincent Browne show". Now a Fine Gael TD, Peter Mathews had made his name as a panel stalwart during the financial crisis, regularly appearing on the TV3 nightly programme.
