George Lee

In total he received 27,768 1st preference votes.

His RTÉ position was filled by Europe editor Sean Whelan, but only as correspondent.

Instead, David Murphy was promoted to Business Editor.

When elected, Lee was referred to as a "Celebrity TD".

He received over 53% of the 1st preference vote.

George Lee (born 27 September 1962) is an Irish economist, journalist, television and radio presenter, and former Fine Gael politician.

He left RTÉ "in the late 1990s" to work for BCP Stockbrokers.

He left the job and returned to his RTÉ post the next day.

George Lee was parodied in the 1990s comedy Bull Island, where he was seen "menacingly staring down the lens of a camera", and has also been featured on RTÉ 2fm's Nob Nation.

He has worked for RTÉ since 1992.

From 1992 to 2009 he worked in RTÉ, the public broadcasting service of Ireland.

He previously was Economics Editor in 1996.

He was appointed Economics Editor with RTÉ in 1996.

Lee was named Irish Journalist of the Year, along with Charlie Bird, in 1998 after they uncovered a major tax evasion and overcharging scandal at National Irish Bank.

He has devised, researched and presented several television series, including Moneybox, More To Do, Winds of Change, and Beyond the Berlin Wall.

He is thought of as an "economics guru".

Before embarking on his political career, he filmed a four-part series based on the fall of the Berlin Wall in 2008.

Lee left RTÉ and became a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South constituency in June 2009, winning a by-election with a 53.4% majority and was referred to as a "celebrity TD".

It was aired on RTÉ One in November 2009.

On 5 May 2009 on the News at One on RTÉ Radio 1, Lee announced that he was resigning as Economic Editor with RTÉ and announced his intention to seek the Fine Gael nomination for the Dublin South by-election in 2009.

Lee took a year's unpaid leave from RTÉ in May 2009.

On 6 May 2009 Lee was chosen as the Fine Gael candidate for the by-election.

He was the only candidate for the nomination.

He was elected on the first count to represent Dublin South on 6 June 2009.

On 8 February 2010, Lee announced his resignation both from Fine Gael and from Dáil Éireann, having spent nine months in politics.

His reasoning was that he had "virtually no influence or input".

He returned to RTÉ in May 2010, and presented Mind Your Business, followed by The Business on RTÉ Radio 1 from 2010.

During his time in RTÉ News, he was named Irish Journalist of the Year for uncovering a major tax evasion and overcharging scandal at National Irish Bank.

Lee's father was a motor mechanic and his mother was a hairdresser.

Lee was the seventh in a family of eight children and grew up in Templeogue, Dublin.

He attended Coláiste Éanna, a Christian Brothers' School in the Dublin suburb of Ballyroan.

Lee is a graduate of University College Dublin and holds an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics where his specialist area was labour economics and unemployment.

He is married to Mary Lee (née Kitson), they have two children, Alison and Harry, and lives in Cabinteely.

Lee famously travelled to work in RTÉ using a Segway, once giving it a test ride live on Tubridy Tonight.

Lee joined the civil service as an executive officer in the Central Statistics Office.

Two years later he started at University College Dublin where he studied economics under academics such as Brendan Walsh and Peter Neary.

Prior to his move into broadcasting, he lectured in NUI, Galway and then worked as a journalist with The Sunday Business Post.

Lee was also a Senior Economist at Riada Stockbrokers.

He also worked as Treasury Economist with FTI and as a research economist with the Central Bank of Ireland.

Since 2019, he has been Environment Correspondent for RTÉ News.