Phil Hogan

Around the time of his 25th birthday, he was elected Council chairman, the youngest council chairman in the country.

Philip Hogan (born 4 July 1960) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as European Commissioner for Trade between 2019 and 2020, and previously European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development between 2014 and 2019.

Hogan was born in Kilkenny in 1960, and grew up on a farm near the village of Tullaroan.

He was educated locally in St. Joseph's College, Freshford, and St. Kieran's College, Kilkenny.

Afterwards, he attended University College Cork, where he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Geography and subsequently a Higher Diploma in Education from the same university.

After completing his university studies, he returned to Tullaroan to manage his family farm.

During that time period, he also founded an insurance and real estate business in Urlingford in the 1980s.

Hogan first held political office at the age of 22, when he was elected to Kilkenny County Council.

He retained that seat in the 1985 Local Elections when he topped the poll in his area.

He served in this role on two separate occasions, first between 1985 and 1986 and then between 1989 and 1990.

From his experience on Kilkenny County Council, he decided to contest the 1987 general election in an unsuccessful bid.

Soon afterwards, he was subsequently elected to Seanad Éireann as a senator for the Industrial and Commercial Panel, serving between 1987 and 1989.

After serving as a Senator in Seanad Éireann for two years, Hogan was subsequently elected to the lower house (Dáil Éireann) for the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency in the 1989 general election.

During his first few years in the Dáil, he was appointed to a number of key positions in opposition, serving in his first few years as the Opposition Spokesperson for the Food Industry (1989–1991), Consumer Affairs (1991–1993), and subsequently Regional Affairs & European Development (1993–1994).

Hogan also worked closely with the Fine Gael leader at the time, John Bruton.

In addition to his local political activities, Hogan was also a member of the South-Eastern Health Board between 1991 and 1999.

When Fine Gael formed the 'rainbow coalition' government in 1994, Hogan was offered the opportunity to serve as Minister of State at the Department of Finance with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works.

Hogan served as Minister of State at the Department of Finance with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works between December 1994 and February 1995.

However, he subsequently tendered his resignation when a staff member accidentally sent out budget details to a journalist before it was announced in the Dáil.

At the time, opposition parties described Hogan as 'the fall guy' for the budget leaks.

Hogan was quoted as saying that "he [had] no regrets about his decision to resign. My only concern in all of this is to ensure that the integrity of the government is maintained."

Following his resignation, Hogan returned to a backbench position in the government.

Despite the controversy surrounding the incident, Hogan was promoted as Chairman of the Fine Gael parliamentary party at the age of 35, a position he held until 2001.

As chairman, Hogan had the opportunity to develop the organisational roots of Fine Gael and strengthened the network between councillors and sub-groups within the Fine Gael party.

In the run-up to the 2002 general election, Hogan was appointed Director of Organisation in Fine Gael.

Upon the resignation of Michael Noonan as party leader of Fine Gael after the party's poor results in that election, Hogan opted to contest the subsequent election for the new Fine Gael leader.

While he conceded the contest to Enda Kenny, he was appointed as Opposition Spokesperson for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and became a key member of the Fine Gael parliamentary party as it started the rebuilding process.

Hogan was again appointed as Director of Organisation for the 2007 general election.

Soon after, he became the Opposition Spokesperson for Fine Gael on Environment, Heritage and Local government for the next 4 years.

He previously served as Irish Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government from 2011 to 2014 and Minister of State at the Department of Finance from 1994 to 1995, as well as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency from 1989 to 2014.

In the lead up to the 2011 General Election, Hogan was appointed by Fine Gael Leader Enda Kenny as National Director of Elections for Fine Gael.

Following the 2011 general election, the most successful in the history of Fine Gael, in which it and Labour formed the largest coalition government in the state's history, Hogan was appointed by the Taoiseach as Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government.

Hogan was responsible for several pieces of legislation to reform local government and introduce gender quotas so as to increase the representation of women in Irish political life.

Hogan introduced the Local Governments Bill, which aimed to streamline local governance, abolishing 80 town councils with the overall number of councils operating in Ireland going from 114 to 31.

The Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Bill 2011 would see parties lose half of their central exchequer funding unless the minority sex among their candidates accounts for 30 per cent of the entire national ticket at the next general election.

The reform was brought in successfully alongside additional amendments to party political funding mechanisms.

The reforms were enacted as the Local Government Reform Act 2014 and were planned to come into effect in 2014, to coincide with the next scheduled local elections.

In addition to local government reform, Hogan also introduced reform within the political party framework.

As part of a series of reforms, he introduced measures to support female participation in politics.

In advance of the 2016 General Election, Hogan noted that "this legislation has had the unprecedented effect of all major political parties selecting a minimum of 30% women candidates. It is my firm belief that this will benefit Irish political life, and indeed Irish society as a whole. Yes, there will naturally be teething problems, but this necessary acceleration of equality will benefit us all in the coming years".