Michelle Mulherin (born 20 January 1972) is an Irish former
Fine Gael
Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil à ...
politician who served as a
Senator from 2016 to 2020, after being
nominated by the Taoiseach
A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example:
* to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs.
* t ...
. She served as a
Teachta Dála
A Teachta Dála ( , ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). It is the equivalent of terms such as ''Member of Parli ...
(TD) for the
Mayo Mayo often refers to:
* Mayonnaise, often shortened to "mayo"
* Mayo Clinic, a medical center in Rochester, Minnesota, United States
Mayo may also refer to:
Places
Antarctica
* Mayo Peak, Marie Byrd Land
Australia
* Division of Mayo, an Aust ...
constituency from 2011 to 2016.
Career
She was elected as a Fine Gael
TD for the
Mayo Mayo often refers to:
* Mayonnaise, often shortened to "mayo"
* Mayo Clinic, a medical center in Rochester, Minnesota, United States
Mayo may also refer to:
Places
Antarctica
* Mayo Peak, Marie Byrd Land
Australia
* Division of Mayo, an Aust ...
constituency at the
2011 general election. She was elected to
Ballina Town Council in
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 Ä°zmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...
and has also as a
Mayo County Council
Mayo County Council ( ga, Comhairle Contae Mhaigh Eo) is the authority responsible for local government in County Mayo, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for housing and ...
lor from
2004, until her election to
Dáil Éireann in 2011.
[ Mulherin also sat on the ]European Committee of the Regions
The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is the European Union's (EU) assembly of local and regional representatives that provides sub-national authorities (i.e. regions, counties, provinces, municipalities and cities) with a direct voice w ...
from 2005 until her election to the Dáil. Mulherin unsuccessfully stood for election in the Mayo constituency at the 2007 general election.[ She lost her seat at the 2016 general election.
Mulherin was ]nominated by the Taoiseach
A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example:
* to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs.
* t ...
Enda Kenny
Enda Kenny (born 24 April 1951) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 2011 to 2017, Leader of Fine Gael from 2002 to 2017, Minister for Defence from May to July 2014 and 2016 to 2017, Leader of the Opposition from ...
to the 25th Seanad
This is a list of the members of the 25th Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Oireachtas (legislature) of Ireland. 49 Senators were elected in April 2016 when postal voting closed. The Taoiseach nominated an additional eleven members to the ...
in May 2016.[
She was the Fine Gael Seanad spokesperson on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. She was an unsuccessful candidate for the Mayo constituency at the 2020 general election.
]
Controversies
In March 2011, Mulherin criticised the Libyan National Transitional Council
The National Transitional Council of Libya ( ar, المجلس الوطني الإنتقالي '), sometimes known as the Transitional National Council, was the ''de facto'' government of Libya for a period during and after the Libyan Civil War ...
during the 2011 Libyan Civil War, saying that it was an "internal matter" and that "oil was what made Libya 'special' and the external interference from countries such as the US is worrying". Mulherin was not disciplined for her comments, which dissented against the official Fine Gael policy.
Several months later, in June 2011, she was among a number of backbench Fine Gael TDs who criticised the level of payments being made to the unemployed. She called for National service
National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939.
The ...
to be introduced in order to tackle a "culture of entitlement". This proposal was criticised by a senior member of Fine Gael, who described the proposal as not being "out of place at a convention of the Tea Party movement
The Tea Party movement was an American fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party that began in 2009. Members of the movement called for lower taxes and for a reduction of the national debt and federal budget defi ...
in America".
In April 2012, she spoke in a Dáil Éireann debate on the subject of limited abortion
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pre ...
. In her brief contribution she described the liberating grace
Grace may refer to:
Places United States
* Grace, Idaho, a city
* Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois
* Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office
* Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uninco ...
of God and the " fallen nature" of all people, and claimed that " fornication, I would say, is probably the single most likely cause of unwanted pregnancies in this country". This was criticised by TDs who favoured more access to abortion, including the independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
Luke 'Ming' Flanagan
Luke 'Ming' Flanagan (born 22 January 1972) is an Irish politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Ireland for the Midlands–North-West constituency since 2014. He is an Independent, but sits in parliament with The ...
and Clare Daly
Clare Daly (born 16 April 1968) is an Irish politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Ireland for the Dublin constituency since July 2019. She is a member of Independents 4 Change, part of The Left in the European P ...
, the Socialist Party
Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...
representative who had proposed the bill being debated. In a television interview a few days later, she clarified that by 'fornication' she had meant 'consensual sex between adults who are not married to each other'.
In March 2013, Mulherin accused youth information site Spunout.ie of publishing inappropriate sex education content. Mulherin claimed that the information on the site was "incredibly regressive" and said that she would raise the issue of funding for the site with Health Minister James Reilly.
In January and February 2015, Mulherin paid €3,295 to the Leinster House authorities for 130 phone calls she made from her Leinster House phone to an individual in Kenya
)
, national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
...
who previously worked on her election campaign.
In 2016, after Mayo reached the All-Ireland Football Final, she claimed she should have a right to a ticket for the Final because she was a Senator. This was despite the fact that she admitted to having attended only two of Mayo's matches en route to the final.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mulherin, Michelle
1972 births
Living people
Alumni of University College Dublin
Fine Gael TDs
Irish solicitors
Members of Mayo County Council
Members of the 31st Dáil
21st-century women Teachtaà Dála
Members of the 25th Seanad
21st-century women members of Seanad Éireann
Nominated members of Seanad Éireann
Fine Gael senators