George Lee (l) officially launches his constituency office.....22-5-09, with Gay Mitchell MEP.

Former RTÉ economics editor George Lee today announced that he has resigned from the Dáíl and from the Fine Gael party, nine months after winning a landslide bye-election victory in Dublin South. In a Dáíl with a large number of members who are incapable of competently discussing the key economic issues of the day, the resignation at a time of economic crisis coincident with a broken political system, will hardly motivate competent outsiders to participate in the legislative process.   

Last June, Lee won 27,768 first preference votes, passing the quota on the first count with more than 1,749 votes to spare. The previous time a candidate won a by-election on a first count was in 1984 in Laois Offaly, when Taoiseach Brian Cowen was elected a TD.

In a statement, Lee said his resignation had been "a very difficult decision," which he had taken after a great deal of reflection on his position. "Despite my best efforts I have had virtually no influence or input into shaping Fine Gael's economic policies at this most critical time," he said. Lee termed his role within Fine Gael as "very limited" and "personally unfulfilling."  "After nine months of trying within the political system it is now my considered view that the role available to me within Fine Gael is not a role I am happy to play,"he said.

Lee told RTÉ radio he had had conversations with the Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny over the last week but while Kenny had indicated that a role could be provided for him, he said it would have come too late, because he had already made up his mind to resign.

He denied his decision to quit after nine months was impatience, saying it was a realistic decision. Lee said he was "very disappointed" for the people who voted for him in Dublin South.

He said he did not need to be on the Fine Gael front bench, but the party did not even ask him his opinion on economic matters.

On RTÉ's News at One , Lee said the time he had spent in the Dáil was long enough to decide whether he was fitting into the party. "I don't know if I was cold-shouldered," he said. "All I know was that I wasn't involved."

Lee said he had tried his best to have an influence on shaping the party's economic policies. "But I have to confess I've had virtually no influence, no input whatsoever, and I feel I be completely dishonest if I allowed myself to carry on like that, so I'm not going to carry on like that. It's over."

He said that while he had been appointed chairman of an economic forum, this was done"without my consultation whatsoever, which wasn't the role at all I wanted to play".

He said he would have expected to have had a greater input in terms of economic policy debates, decisions, or consultations. "But it just didn't happen."

On his future, he said he did not know 100% what he would do now, but he would probably return to RTÉ.

George Lee could have won the Dublin South seat as an independent and had the strength before the election to negotiate a more significant role for himself.