Alex White (born 3 December 1958) is an Irish lawyer and a former Labour Party politician who served as Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources from 2014 to 2016, Minister of State for Primary Care from 2012 to 2014 and Leader of the Labour Party in the Seanad 2007 to 2011. He 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 Dublin South constituency from 2011 to 2016. He was a Senator for the

Cultural and Educational Panel The Cultural and Educational Panel () 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 Cultural and Educational Panel elects five ...

from 2007 to 2011.

Early life

White grew up in

Marino, Dublin Marino () is an inner suburb on the Northside of Dublin, Ireland. It was built, in a planned form, on former grounds of Marino House, in an area between Drumcondra, Donnycarney, Clontarf, and what became Fairview. The initial development f ...

. He was educated at Chanel College,

Coolock Coolock () is a large suburban area, centred on a village, on Dublin city's Northside in Ireland. Coolock is crossed by the Santry River, a prominent feature in the middle of the district, with a linear park and ponds. The Coolock suburban are ...

, and later at

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

and King's Inns. He was called to the

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

in 1987. White was a student activist in Trinity College, where he was president of the Students' Union and also for a time a supporter of various Trotskyist groupings, including the League for a Workers Republic. He was later a national officer of the

Union of Students in Ireland The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) ( ga, Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn) is the national representative body for Tertiary education, third-level students' unions in Ireland. Founded in 1959, USI represents more than 374,000 students in over ...

. During his time as a producer with RTÉ, he was active in the

SIPTU SIPTU (; ''Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union''; ga, An Ceardchumann Seirbhísí, Tionsclaíoch, Gairmiúil agus Teicniúil) is Ireland's largest trade union, with around 200,000 members. Most of these members are in the Rep ...

trade union. In common with

Mary McAleese Mary Patricia McAleese ( ; ga, Máire Pádraigín Mhic Ghiolla Íosa; ; born 27 June 1951) is an Irish activist lawyer and former politician who served as the eighth president of Ireland from November 1997 to November 2011. She is an academic ...

, he was attacked and criticised by a group led by

Eoghan Harris Eoghan Harris (born 13 March 1943) is an Irish journalist, columnist, director, and former politician. He has held posts in various and diverse political parties. He was a leading theoretician in the Marxist-Leninist Workers' Party of Ireland, p ...

and associated with the Workers' Party, over what they perceived as their bias towards Republican groups in the North. White was a strong opponent of Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act, which prevented

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

members from being heard. White has a long record of involvement in campaigns to further the equal rights of women. He actively campaigned for divorce in 1986 and 1995, and was a Director of Elections for the Anti-Amendment campaign on the North side of Dublin in 1983.

Political career

He was first elected to

South Dublin County Council South Dublin County Council ( ga, Comhairle Contae Átha Cliath Theas) is the authority responsible for local government in the county of South Dublin, Ireland. It is one of three local authorities created by the Local Government (Dublin) Act ...

in 2004, for the

Terenure Terenure (), originally called ''Roundtown'', is an affluent, middle class suburb of Dublin in Ireland. It is located in the city's D6W postcode area. Location and transport Terenure lies primarily in the administrative area of Dublin City ...

Rathfarnham Rathfarnham () is a Southside suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is south of Terenure, east of Templeogue, and is in the postal districts of Dublin 14 and 16. It is within the administrative areas of both Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Counci ...

local electoral area. He was an unsuccessful candidate at the 2007 general election in the Dublin South constituency. White was nominated as a general election candidate in 2007, by the Labour Party leadership. He had voted for coalition with

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 � ...

in a Labour Party congress (the line of

Pat Rabbitte Pat Rabbitte (born 18 May 1949) is an Irish former Labour Party politician who served as Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources from 2011 to 2014, Leader of the Labour Party from 2002 to 2007 and a Minister of State from 19 ...

, then leader of the party). His election to the Seanad was due to a voting pact with

. He was the Labour Party candidate in the

2009 by-election 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

in Dublin South. He came second behind the former RTÉ economics editor George Lee. White was his party's Seanad group leader and Spokesperson on Children between 2007 and February 2011, when he was elected to the Dáil. He subsequently was appointed as Chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform. White was leader of an Oireachtas delegation that met the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...

's Budgetary and European Affairs committees in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

in late January 2012. White was formally nominated for the position of Minister of State for Primary Care by

Eamon Gilmore Eamonn or Éamon or Eamon may refer to: * Eamonn (given name), an Irish male given name * Eamon (singer) (born 1983), American R&B singer-songwriter and harmonicist * ''Eamon'' (video game), a 1980 computer role-playing game for the Apple II *"Éam ...

on 27 September 2012, following the resignation of

Róisín Shortall Róisín Shortall (born 25 April 1954) is an Irish Social Democrats politician who has been joint leader of the Social Democrats since June 2015. She has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North-West constituency since 1992. She previousl ...

. Following the resignation of

as Leader of the Labour Party, in the aftermath of Labour's poor result at the 2014

local Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

and European elections, White announced his candidacy for the party leadership. On 4 July 2014,

Joan Burton Joan Burton (born 1 February 1949) is a former Irish Labour Party politician who served as Tánaiste and Leader of the Labour Party from 2014 to 2016, Minister for Social Protection from 2011 to 2016, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 2 ...

was elected as Labour Party leader, defeating White by 77% to 22%. Alex White played a key role in the 2015 in the marriage equality referendum campaign. On 11 July 2014, he was appointed Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. White lost his seat at the 2016 general election. He remained Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources during prolonged talks on government formation. In June 2017, he was co-opted to fill a vacancy on

Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council ( ga, Comhairle Contae Dhún Laoghaire–Ráth an Dúin) is the authority responsible for local government in the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Ireland. It is one of three local authorities that ...

. In January 2019, White was selected as the Labour Party candidate for the Dublin constituency in the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million peop ...

. He got 18,293 first-preference votes (5.0%) but was not elected. White returned full-time to the Irish Bar in 2016 and continues to practise as a Senior Counsel. He is chair of the Employment Bar Association. Although retaining membership of the Labour Party he has not been politically active since 2019.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:White, Alex 1958 births Living people Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Irish barristers Irish radio producers Labour Party (Ireland) TDs Local councillors in South Dublin (county) Members of the 23rd Seanad Members of the 31st Dáil Ministers of State of the 31st Dáil RTÉ people Labour Party (Ireland) senators Local councillors in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown Alumni of King's Inns People from Coolock People educated at Chanel College, Dublin