Clare Daly
Clare Daly | |
|---|---|
| Teachta Dála | |
| Assumed office 26 February 2011 | |
| Constituency | Dublin North |
| Fingal County Councillor | |
| In office 1999–2011 | |
| Constituency | Swords |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 1968 (age 56) Kildare, Ireland |
| Political party | Socialist |
| Other political affiliations | United Left Alliance |
| Alma mater | Dublin City University |
| Website | www |
Clare Daly (born April 1968) is an Irish Socialist Party politician and trade union activist.[1] She was elected as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North constituency at the 2011 general election.[2] She was previously a Socialist Party councillor for the Swords electoral area on Fingal County Council.
Early life
Daly was born in Kildare and educated at Dublin City University. She was twice elected president of the Students' Union and was prominent in the students' movement campaign for abortion rights and information. Daly was elected to Labour's Administrative Committee as a youth representative. She was expelled from the Labour Party in 1989 alongside Joe Higgins TD and other supporters of the Militant Tendency.
Career
Local politics
On 19 September 2003, Daly was jailed alongside 21 others from the Anti-Bin Tax Campaign for breaching a High Court order preventing protests leading to obstruction of the council's non-collection policy for those not paying bin charges.[3][4] She is a former SIPTU Shop Steward in Aer Lingus and was also an organiser of the Anti-Water charges campaign in Swords in the mid 1990s.
Daly was elected as a Councillor on Fingal County Council for the Swords area in 1999. She was re-elected at 2004 local elections and 2009 local elections, topping the poll on each occasion.
Dáil Éireann
She first contested the 1997 general election, receiving 7.2% on that occasion and 8.2% at the by-election later in the year. At the 2002 general election she received 5,501 votes (12.5%), narrowly missing a seat. At the 2007 general election, she received 9% of the vote.
Daly was elected to Dáil Éireann at the 2011 general election taking 15.2% of the first preference vote.[5][6] She committed to facilitating the nomination of Senator David Norris for a place on the ballot paper ahead of the Irish presidential election, 2011.[7]
She announced that she would not register to pay a new household charge brought in as part of the latest austerity budget, calling it "reprehensible", and telling Phil Hogan, the minister responsible, in the Dáil: "You can't bring everyone to court".[8][9]
She has been in several disputes with the Irish Independent, telling it to mind its own business when asked if she had private health insurance.[10] She also said a misleading article in the newspaper, which featured comments from Labour Senator and former Fine Gael politician Jimmy Harte, was an "incitement to hatred", stating "The level of inaccuracy cannot be put down to a careless mistranslation but rather it amounts to an attack on foreign national workers, which, as the Polish Ambassador alluded to yesterday, is an ugly feature of history in times of economic recession".[11]
References
- ^ "Meet your 76 new TDs". RTÉ News. 9 March 2011.
- ^ "Ms. Clare Daly". Oireachtas Members Database. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
- ^ "Jail sentences for Joe Higgins and Clare Daly". Breakingnews.ie. 19 September 2003.
- ^ Managh, Ray (18 September 2003). "TD and councillor risk jail in bin tax protest". Irish Independent.
- ^ "Clare Daly". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
- ^ Minihan, Mary (28 February 2011). "Higgins pledges to build new party of left as five elected under ULA banner". The Irish Times.
- ^ Nihill, Cían (19 September 2011). "Boost for Norris as left-wing TDs to support nomination". The Irish Times.
- ^ "Higgins urges public to boycott 'unjust' €100 Household Charge". The Journal. 14 December 2011. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
- ^ O'Halloran, Marie; O'Regan, Michael (14 December 2011). "Kenny defends household charge". The Irish Times. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
- ^ "Health critics refuse to reveal if they have private cover". Irish Independent. 1 February 2012. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
- ^ "Labour Senator apologises for Twitter comments". Irish Examiner. 2 February 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2012.