Séamus Healy

Séamus Healy (born 9 August 1950) is an Irish independent politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Tipperary South constituency intermittently since a 2000 by-election Healy was most recently elected at the 2024 general election.

He is part of the Clonmel-based Workers and Unemployed Action (WUA) which had a number of local representatives on South Tipperary County Council and Clonmel Borough Council. He is a former member of the League for a Workers Republic.International Trotskyism, 1929–1985: a documented analysis of the movement By Robert Jackson Alexander, p. 576.

Career

Having worked as Hospital Administrator for South Tipperary Acute Hospital Services from 1978 to 1999, Healy was first elected to Clonmel Borough Council in 1985. He was elected to the 28th Dáil at a by-election on 22 June 2000. He was re-elected at the 2002 general election, but lost his seat at the 2007 general election to Martin Mansergh of Fianna Fáil. After losing his Dáil seat, he returned to serve as a South Tipperary County Councillor for the Clonmel local electoral area, being co-opted for Pat English, after which he was appointed to various committees such as the local Vocational Education Committee, promotion of the Irish language and various water supply committees.

Healy was re-elected to South Tipperary County Council at the 2009 local elections.

He won back his seat at the 2011 general election with 21.3 per cent of the first preference vote and served on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children.

On 15 December 2011, he helped launch a nationwide campaign against the household charge being brought in as part of the 2012 Irish budget.

He stood for re-election to the new Tipperary constituency as an Independent in the 2016 general election, and was elected on the seventh count. He voted for both Gerry Adams and Richard Boyd Barrett for Taoiseach when the 32nd Dáil first met.

Healy's brother Paddy Healy served as president of the Teachers' Union of Ireland and ran unsuccessfully in the Seanad elections in 2007 and 2011 for the NUI panel, and in the 1980s ran in the Dublin North-East constituency as an Anti H-Block candidate. He worked as a voluntary researcher for Seamus.

He lost his seat at the 2020 general election. Following his defeat, Healy said: “I’ve been here before. I’ve been an activist all my life. I lost in 2007 by 59 votes. I will continue to be an activist. Life is like that: you win some, you lost some. You pick yourself up, dust yourself down, and keep going.”

In September 2023, Healy confirmed that he would be running in the 2024 general election for Tipperary South, following boundary changes that split Tipperary back into two constituencies. He stated that the unification of south and north Tipperary into a single Dáil constituency and local authority had been disastrous for south Tipperary, which he believed was playing "second fiddle" to north Tipperary.

At the 2024 general election, Healy was elected to the Dáil with 9,601 votes. Aged 74, he was one of the oldest candidates in the general election, and is one of the oldest TDs elected to the Dáil. Healy's first speech in the 34th Dáil focused on the "housing and homelessness crisis" which he stated is the "most fundamental issue facing this country". He announced his intention to reintroduce his Housing Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Healy, Seamus
1950 births
Living people
Independent TDs
Irish tax resisters
Members of South Tipperary County Council
Members of the 28th Dáil
Members of the 29th Dáil
Members of the 31st Dáil
Members of the 32nd Dáil
Politicians from County Tipperary
Members of the 34th Dáil