Heather Humphreys, has spoken for the first time about the reasons behind her decision to step away from local and national politics. She gave an interview to the Joe Finnegan Show today following her shock announcement at the weekend.
While Minister Humphreys said she is in good health now, at 64 year of age, the reality is that by the end of the next government term she will be almost 70. She added that there is "no work/life balance in politics" at her level and with this in mind she said she asked herself and her family if she would be able to give her roles the same commitment for the next five years and decided the answer was no.
Another deciding factor is how she threw herself into supporting party colleagues in the recent local elections but afterwards found it difficult to get her energy levels back up. She then took time off in August off to re-charge her batteries but couldn't manage it and it was then she informed the Taoiseach of her plan to step away. Heather Humphries said if she couldn't give the job 100 per cent then she'd rather not be doing it:
