of the cabinet while Haughey had the backing of a large rump of backbench TDs who had become disillusioned with the party leadership. MacSharry, in spite of serving as junior minister to Colley, was one of the strongest supporters of Haughey and even ended up nominating him for the position of party leader. Haughey succeeded in becoming party leader, albeit by a narrow margin of just six votes, and was later elected Taoiseach by the Dáil. MacSharry's loyalty was subsequently rewarded when he was appointed Minister for Agriculture in the new government. Agriculture was viewed as a key portfolio in Haughey's new cabinet and MacSharry was regarded as an effective Minister at a time when farm prices were falling. He was also successful in agricultural negotiations with the EEC. Following the 1981 general election, Fianna Fáil were out of power. In the new Fianna Fáil front bench MacSharry was retained as Spokesperson for Agriculture, but a later reshuffle saw him move to fisheries. Fianna Fáil returned to office following the February 1982 general election and MacSharry was appointed as Tánaiste and Minister for Finance. At a time when Ireland was going through a recession, MacSharry introduced a budget which increased income tax at all levels. It was his only budget as the government fell after just nine months in office and a new coalition government of Fine Gael and the Labour Party took office. 1983 bugging scandal In 1983, MacSharry resigned from the Fianna Fáil front bench due to the a phone tapping scandal, when it was revealed that as Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, he had borrowed police tape recorders to secretly record conversations with a cabinet colleague. He defended his action by saying that rumours were sweeping the party that he could be 'bought' (bribed) to support efforts to depose Haughey; he claimed he used the equipment to record any attempts made to offer bribes. The scandal was however primarily focused on the decision by the Minister for Justice, Seán Doherty, to bug the phones of two leading political journalists to discover their anti-Haughey sources. MacSharry was a secondary but high-profile casualty of the scandal, as the equipment he had used had been supplied by Doherty, who had requested it from Assistant Garda Commissioner Joseph Ainsworth. Ainsworth was also forced to resign when the scandal reached the headlines. Political comeback and European Commissioner MacSharry spent a number of