Penrose resigned from the party in November 2011 over the government’s decision to close the Columb Barracks in Mullingar. Penrose also had a seat at the cabinet table at the time, as he was a super junior Minister in the Department of the Environment.

“I was always going to return to the party,” Penrose told The Dealer.

After 23 months of self-imposed exile with no Oireachtas committee seat, Penrose received a call last Wednesday night to join the Oireachtas Agriculture committee.

Penrose takes the vacated seat of former Labour TD Colm Keaveney, who lost the party whip last year.

Footprint

Penrose says he wants to impose Labour’s footprint in rural Ireland, as well as driving a land mobility agenda.

“I want to look at the wider rural and agri economy. One thing I see as being crucially important to the rural economy is the whole issue of land transfer and mobility,” he said.

A qualified barrister, as well as a graduate in agricultural economics from UCD, Penrose says he is ‘returning to his roots’.

The Dealer understands that during the formation of the current government, Penrose was pushing hard to be the Minister for Agriculture, before accepting the super junior ministerial position.