Mary Harney

Mary Harney (born 11 March 1953) is an Irish former politician and the former Chancellor of the University of Limerick.

Harney was born in Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe, County Galway, in 1953.

Her parents, who lived in nearby Ahascragh, were both farmers, but shortly after her birth her family moved to Newcastle, County Dublin.

She was educated at the Convent of Mercy, Inchicore, and Presentation Convent, Clondalkin, before studying at Trinity College Dublin.

During her time in Trinity, she became the first female auditor (chair) of the College Historical Society.

In 1976, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Economic and Social Studies, and for a brief time was a secondary school teacher at Castleknock College in Dublin.

Harney came to the attention of Fianna Fáil leader Jack Lynch, and stood unsuccessfully as a Fianna Fáil candidate in the 1977 general election.

She was then appointed to Seanad Éireann by Lynch who had become Taoiseach.

She was the youngest ever member of the Seanad when appointed, aged 24.

In 1979, Harney had her first electoral success when she was elected to Dublin County Council.

She is the second longest-ever-serving female member of Dáil Éireann, serving as a Teachta Dála (TD) successively for the Dublin South-West and Dublin Mid-West constituencies from 1981 to 2011.

Two years later she was elected to the Dáil at the 1981 general election for Dublin South-West.

As a member of the so-called Gang of 22, she was expelled from the party after voting in favour of the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985.

Harney went on to become a founder member of the Progressive Democrats with Desmond O'Malley and Bobby Molloy in December 1985.

Following the 1989 general election the Progressive Democrats entered into a coalition government with Fianna Fáil, led at the time by Charles Haughey.

Harney was appointed Minister of State with responsibility for Environmental Protection.

As Minister of State she championed legislation to ban the sale of bituminous coal in Dublin, thereby eliminating smog from the city.

She served in this position until the party withdrew from government in late 1992.

She was leader of the Progressive Democrats party between 1993 and 2006 and again from 2007 to 2008, resuming the role after her successor, Michael McDowell, lost his seat at the 2007 general election.

In February 1993, Harney was appointed deputy leader of the Progressive Democrats, and succeeded O'Malley as party leader in October of that year, making her the first female leader of an Irish political party in Dáil Eireann.

She was Ireland's first female Tánaiste from 1997 to 2006, and the first woman to lead a party in Dáil Éireann.

Following the 1997 general election and lengthy negotiations, the Progressive Democrats entered into coalition government with Fianna Fáil.

Harney was appointed the first female Tánaiste and first female Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

Harney used her powers to initiate thirteen investigations into companies which tribunals had suggested might have breached company law.

In December 2001, Harney controversially used an Air Corps aircraft to travel to County Leitrim to open a friend's off-licence in Manorhamilton; the trip cost €1,500.

Harney later apologised for having abused her position in using the plane for non-government business, and admitted that using the plane was wrong.

The aircraft was to be used 90% of the time exclusively for maritime surveillance.

After the 2002 general election Harney led the Progressive Democrats, who had doubled their seats from four to eight, back into coalition with Fianna Fáil, the first time a government had been re-elected since 1969.

She was re-appointed Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

She inaugurated the Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB) in May 2004, to reduce high litigation costs in personal injuries cases and to compensate claimants quickly and cheaply.

This was a major reform of the insurance market long opposed by the legal profession.

Harney was Ireland's representative to the European Council of Ministers for the Software Patents Directive.

Because the council's first reading fell during the Irish Presidency of the European Council, she was chair of the meeting that discarded the amendments by the European Parliament which confirmed the exclusion of software innovations from what constitutes patentable subject matter.

In a government reshuffle on 29 September 2004, Harney was appointed Minister for Health and Children.

In May 2006, the Irish Nurses Organisation unanimously passed a motion of no confidence in Mary Harney, accusing her of being negative and antagonistic towards nurses.

Her policy of transferring private beds in public hospitals to privately operated hospitals also attracted criticism.

In March 2006, 16 months after she took office as health minister, the INO claimed that a record number of 455 people were waiting on hospital trolleys on one day (although the Health Service Executive gave a figure of 363 people waiting on hospital trolleys for the same day).

In June 2006 the Health Consumer Powerhouse ranked the Irish health service as the second-least-"consumer-friendly" in the European Union and Switzerland, coming 25th out of 26 countries, ahead of only Lithuania.

She retained her seat at every election until her retirement in 2011, moving to the new Dublin Mid-West constituency at the 2002 general election when it was created from part of Dublin South-West.

After the killers of gay man Declan Flynn received suspended sentences, Harney challenged then Minister for Justice Michael Noonan to seek the resignation of the judge.