Joe Jacob

Joe Jacob is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician.
Jacob was born in Kilrush, County Clare in 1939. He was educated at De La Salle in Wicklow and Terenure College in Dublin. He is a former publican and a distribution manager with Nitrigin Éireann Teoranta.
Jacob was elected as a Fianna Fáil councillor at the 1985 [Wicklow County Council election] for the local electoral area of Wicklow and retained his seat on Wicklow County Council until his appointment as a minister of state in 1997. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála for Wicklow at the 1987 general election. He held his seat at each subsequent election, until retiring at the 2007 general election.
He was chair of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party from 1992 until 1995 and served as Leas-Cheann Comhairle of the Dáil from 1993 until 1997.
He was appointed a Minister of State at the Department of Public Enterprise with special responsibility for Energy in 1997. Jacob caused controversy in 2001 when, during a radio interview on The Marian Finucane Show as the minister responsible, he demonstrated an apparent lack of knowledge over the use of iodine tablets and the emergency plans in the event of a terrorist attack similar to the 11 September attacks in the United States. He was not re-appointed to a ministerial position after the 2002 general election. He retired at the 2007 general election.