Phil Prendergast (; born 20 September 1959) is an Irish former Labour Party politician who served as a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP) for the South constituency from 2011 to 2014, Leader of the Labour Party in the Seanad in 2011 and a Senator for the

Labour Panel The Labour Panel ( ga, An Rolla Oibreachais) is one of five vocational panels which together elect 43 of the 60 members of Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Oireachtas (the legislature of Ireland). The Labour Panel elects eleven senators. ...

from 2007 to 2011.

Early and private life

Phil Foley was born in County Kilkenny. She was a

midwife A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; co ...

at South Tipperary General Hospital for more than 20 years, having trained in Waterford Regional Hospital. She is married to Ray Prendergast, a psychiatric nurse, and has two children. She is a former local branch officer with the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, on the executive board of which she served in 1994.

Political career

Local

Prendergast served on Clonmel Borough Council and

South Tipperary County Council South Tipperary County Council ( ga, Comhairle Contae Thiobraid Árann Theas) was the authority responsible for local government in the county of South Tipperary, Ireland. The council had 26 elected members. The head of the council had the titl ...

from 1999 to 2007, where she was elected originally as a member of the

Workers and Unemployed Action Group Workers and Unemployed Action (WUA; ) is an Irish political party based in Clonmel in South County Tipperary, set up in 1985 by Séamus Healy. WUA had one Teachta Dála (TD) until 2020 and has endorsed and seen a number of its members elected ...

(WUAG).

National

She first contested an election to Dáil Éireann in June 2001, when she stood on behalf of the WUAG in the Tipperary South by-election that followed the death of

Theresa Ahearn Theresa Ahearn (; 1 May 1951 – 20 September 2000) was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as a Teachta Dála for the Tipperary South constituency from 1989 to 2000. Political career Her first elected office was as a member of South T ...

; she polled 7,897 first preference votes. In June 2005, she left the WUAG to join the Labour Party. She was a Labour candidate at the 2007 general election in the Tipperary South constituency; she was unsuccessful, but was subsequently elected to the Seanad by the

. She caused some controversy within the local Labour Party branch when she tried to nominate a family member to replace her on the council. Previously a Labour spokesperson on the Older Person, Prendergast served in the Seanad as a spokesperson on Health, Art and Sports, and Social and Family Affairs. She unsuccessfully contested the 2011 general election in Tipperary South, receiving almost 11.0% of the first preference votes.

European

In April 2011 she was selected as the replacement for MEP Alan Kelly, who was elected to Dáil Éireann at the 2011 election for Tipperary North. She sat on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, and on the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee. As a

, Prendergast spoke 127 times in

plenary session A plenary session or plenum is a session of a conference which all members of all parties are to attend. Such a session may include a broad range of content, from keynotes to panel discussions, and is not necessarily related to a specific st ...

and worked on the amendation of 32 reports. She was involved in a controversy with the Labour Party leadership when she became the first member of the parliamentary party to call for the resignation of Health Minister James Reilly, following the announcement of the location of primary care health centres in the minister's own constituency. She lost her seat at the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Prendergast, Phil 1959 births Living people Irish midwives Irish nurses Labour Party (Ireland) MEPs Labour Party (Ireland) senators Members of South Tipperary County Council Members of the 23rd Seanad 21st-century women members of Seanad Éireann MEPs for the Republic of Ireland 2009–2014 21st-century women MEPs for the Republic of Ireland Health professionals from County Kilkenny Labour Party (Ireland) candidates in Dáil elections Labour Panel senators