Jimmy Harte
Jimmy Harte | |
|---|---|
| Senator | |
| Assumed office April 2011 | |
| Constituency | Industrial and Commercial Panel |
| Donegal County Councillor | |
| In office June 1999 – April 2011 | |
| Constituency | Letterkenny |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1958 (age 66) |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Political party | Labour Party |
| Other political affiliations | Fine Gael (1999–2006) |
| Spouse | Mary Galligan |
| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater | University College Dublin |
| Website | jimmyharte |
Jimmy Harte (born 1958) is an Irish Labour Party politician and member of Seanad Éireann since April 2011.[1] He is a former member of Fine Gael.
He obtained a B.A. in Psychology from University College Dublin. He runs his own insurance broker business, Harte Insurances, which he set up at the age of 24.
Local politics
The son of former Fine Gael TD Paddy Harte, he was elected as a Fine Gael candidate to Letterkenny town council in 1994 and subsequently to Donegal County Council in 1999. In 2006 he resigned from Fine Gael after failing to secure a nomination from the party to contest the Donegal North–East constituency for the 2007 general election. He subsequently stood as an independent candidate at that election but was not elected.[2]
National politics
Harte joined the Labour Party in 2010 and was that party's candidate for the 2011 general election for Donegal North East, where he was unsuccessful in winning a seat.[2]
Following his failure to secure a Dáil seat in the February 2011 general election, Harte was elected to Seanad Éireann on the Industrial and Commercial Panel in April 2011.
Views on social welfare
Harte has become known for his criticisms of welfare recipients, once claiming that a Donegal family was in receipt of €90,000 in annual welfare payments but the assertion was never substantiated. In February 2012 he offered to pay for the flight of a Polish worker living in Donegal to return "home" to stop her receiving unemployment benefit and FAS training after reading a mistranslation of a news feature article in a Polish newspaper which purported to quote the woman who was named as 'Magda'.
After it became apparent the article Harte was talking about was less than truthful many people took to Twitter to question him about his opinion. In response Mr Harte began to insult various users based on where he believed they lived, their appearance and their intellect. He also accused some users of being xenophobic against Donegal while at the same time accusing other users of being "D4 types" in a derogatory manner. He later removed his comments, though accepted full responsibilty for them.[3][4][5]
References
- ^ "Mr. Jimmy Harte". Oireachtas Members Database. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
- ^ a b "Jimmy Harte". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 29 April 2011.
- ^ "Senator Harte says sorry for Twitter outburst in wake of Magda story". Highland Radio. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
- ^ "Labour Senator apologises for Twitter comments". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
- ^ "Labour Senator apologises over Twitter insults following 'Magda' controversy". The Journal.ie. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
External links
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