Mary Harney
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Mary Harney (born 11 March 1953) is an Irish former politician and the former
Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...
of the
University of Limerick University of Limerick (UL) () is a Public university, public research university institution in Limerick, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Founded in 1972, as the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick, it became a university in Septemb ...
. 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. She is the second longest-ever-serving female member of
Dáil Éireann Dáil Éireann ( ; , ) is the lower house and principal chamber of the Oireachtas, which also includes the president of Ireland and a senate called Seanad Éireann.Article 15.1.2° of the Constitution of Ireland reads: "The Oireachtas shall co ...
, serving as a
Teachta Dála A Teachta Dála ( ; ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish language, Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas, the parliament of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The official Engli ...
(TD) successively for the Dublin South-West and Dublin Mid-West constituencies from 1981 to 2011. She was Ireland's first female
Tánaiste The Tánaiste ( , ) is the second-ranking member of the government of Ireland and the holder of its second-most senior office. It is the equivalent of the deputy prime minister in other parliamentary systems. The Tánaiste is appointed by the P ...
from 1997 to 2006, and the first woman to lead a party in Dáil Éireann.


Early life and education

Harney was born in Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe,
County Galway County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...
, in 1953. Her parents, who lived in nearby
Ahascragh Ahascragh () is a village in east County Galway, Ireland. It is located north-west of Ballinasloe on the Ahascragh/Bunowen River, a tributary of the River Suck. The R358 road (Ireland), R358 Regional road (Ireland), regional road passes through ...
, were both farmers, but shortly after her birth her family moved to
Newcastle, County Dublin Newcastle () is a village in South Dublin county south-west of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is also a Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in the Barony (Ireland), historical barony of the same name. It was the location of the cas ...
. She was educated at the Convent of Mercy,
Inchicore Inchicore () is a suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Located approximately west of the city centre, Inchicore was originally a small village separate from Dublin. The village developed around Richmond Barracks (built 1810) and Inchi ...
, and Presentation Convent, Clondalkin, before studying at
Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...
. During her time in Trinity, she became the first female auditor (chair) of the
College Historical Society The College Historical Society (CHS) – popularly referred to as The Hist – is a debating society at Trinity College Dublin. It was established within the college in 1770 and was inspired by the club formed by the philosopher Edmund ...
. 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.


Political career: 1977–2011


Fianna Fáil: 1977–1985

Harney came to the attention of
Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil ( ; ; meaning "Soldiers of Destiny" or "Warriors of Fál"), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (), is a centre to centre-right political party in Ireland. Founded as a republican party in 1926 by Éamon de ...
leader Jack Lynch, and stood unsuccessfully as a Fianna Fáil candidate in the 1977 general election. She was then appointed to
Seanad Éireann Seanad Éireann ( ; ; "Senate of Ireland") is the senate of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (defined as the house of representatives). It is commonly called the Seanad or ...
by Lynch who had become
Taoiseach The Taoiseach (, ) is the head of government or prime minister of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the President of Ireland upon nomination by Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...
. 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. Two years later she was elected to the Dáil at the 1981 general election for Dublin South-West. 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. 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.


Foundation of Progressive Democrats: 1985–1997

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 A coalition is formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political, military, or economic spaces. Formation According to ''A G ...
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. 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.


Return to coalition with Fianna Fáil: 1997–2004

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 The Tánaiste ( , ) is the second-ranking member of the government of Ireland and the holder of its second-most senior office. It is the equivalent of the deputy prime minister in other parliamentary systems. The Tánaiste is appointed by the P ...
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.McNamara,Maedhbh. A woman's place is in the Cabinet: women ministers in Irish governments 1919-2019. Drogheda, Sea Dog Books,2020.ISBN 978-1-913275-06-8 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 The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...
which confirmed the exclusion of software innovations from what constitutes patentable subject matter. In December 2001, Harney controversially used an Air Corps aircraft to travel to
County Leitrim County Leitrim ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the village of Leitrim, County Leitr ...
to open a friend's off-licence in
Manorhamilton Manorhamilton () is the second-largest town in County Leitrim, Ireland. It is located on the N16 from Sligo and from Enniskillen. History Before the Plantations of Ireland, the settlement was known, and continues to be known in the ...
; 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.


Minister for Health and Children: 2004–2011

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 The Health Service Executive (HSE) () is the publicly funded healthcare system in Ireland, responsible for the provision of health and personal social services. It came into operation on 1 January 2005. The current director-general is Berna ...
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. However, when the same survey was conducted a year later, the Irish health service showed significant improvement, coming 16th out of 29 countries, even scoring higher than Britain's
NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...
, which came 17th in the survey. In July 2006, '' Ireland on Sunday'' reported that Mary Harney's mother, Sarah Harney, jumped a queue of two emergency cases to receive hip surgery at The Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Tallaght. The allegation was strongly denied by the minister. Sixty percent of respondents to a ''
The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...
''/TNS mrbi poll in December 2006 said that the appointment of Harney to the position of Minister for Health had not led to any improvement in the health service. Fine Gael, the Labour Party and Harney's own Progressive Democrats supporters were those who expressed most satisfaction, with people in Dublin also feeling most dissatisfaction regionally. Harney rejected criticisms from Fine Gael during the same month that there had been a 25% increase in people waiting on trolleys in regional hospitals during the past two years; she claimed Health Service Executive statistics showed otherwise. In July and August 2006, she issued three orders exempting two new community nursing units, to be built at St. Mary's Hospital in the
Phoenix Park The Phoenix Park () is a large urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its perimeter wall encloses of recreational space. It includes large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues, and since ...
, from the usual legal requirement of planning permission, despite the Park being a designated and protected national monument. The Department of Health said the decision was made because of what it called the department's "emergency response to the accident and emergency crisis at the time", although the nursing units, in use since 2008, are mainly for geriatric care. The same year, in her capacity as Minister for Health, Mary Harney introduced risk equalisation into the Irish healthcare market. This was hugely resisted by BUPA. Despite High Court proceedings, the controversial change was upheld. This forced BUPA out of the Irish healthcare market. (BUPA Ireland was afterwards bought by the Irish-owned Quinn Group, averting any fear of redundancies.) In January 2007 a leaked memo said that the planned Cancer Care Strategy, due for completion in 2011, would not be delivered on time. Harney denied this and said that since the leaking of the memo there had been much progress, although she did not elaborate. The plan was to allow for nationwide radiotherapy services by 2011.


Resignation and return as party leader: 2006–2008

On 7 September 2006, Mary Harney announced that she was resigning as leader of the Progressive Democrats and that she would remain leader until a successor was chosen. She said she wanted to continue as Minister for Health but stated that it was a matter for her successor and the Taoiseach. She was succeeded by then-Justice Minister Michael McDowell after Tom Parlon and backbencher Liz O'Donnell nominated him. Parlon became party president and O'Donnell Deputy Leader in an agreement with McDowell after much speculation that the pair would also seek the leadership. Following the poor performance of the Progressive Democrats at the 2007 general election, in which the party lost six of its eight seats including that of party leader Michael McDowell, Harney resumed her role as party leader. The Progressive Democrats' rules at the time stipulated that the leader of the party must be a TD, and Harney was one of only two remaining TDs; she resumed the leadership in a caretaker capacity. Following a rule change that broadened the eligibility, she was succeeded by Senator Ciarán Cannon as party leader on 17 April 2008.


Independent TD: 2008–2011

When the Progressive Democrats voted to disband in November 2008, Harney said she would remain as an independent TD once the party was wound up.


Resignation as minister and retirement from Dáil: 2011

On 15 January 2011, Harney tendered her resignation as Minister for Health and Children to Taoiseach
Brian Cowen Brian Bernard Cowen (born 10 January 1960) is an Irish former politician who served as Taoiseach and Leader of Fianna Fáil from 2008 to 2011. Cowen served as a TD for the constituency of Laois–Offaly from 1984 to 2011 and served in several ...
. She also stated that she would not be contesting the 2011 general election.


Criticisms

Alongside her predecessor at the Department of Health,
Micheál Martin Micheál Martin (; born 16 August 1960) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician serving as Taoiseach since January 2025, having previously held the position from 2020 to 2022. Martin served as Tánaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Min ...
, and officials at two prominent Dublin fertility clinics, she received a package which included a threatening letter on 29 February 2008. Councillor Louise Minihan, a member of
Dublin City Council Dublin City Council () is the Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local authority of the city of Dublin in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. As a city council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. Until 2001, the authority was k ...
, threw red paint over Harney on 1 November 2010 as Harney turned the sod on a new health centre beside the Cherry Orchard Hospital in
Ballyfermot Ballyfermot () is a suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located west of the city centre, south of Phoenix Park. It is bordered by Chapelizod on the north, by Bluebell, Dublin, Bluebell on the south, by Inchicore on the east, ...
. Minihan was detained but later released. On 12 November 2010, Harney's ministerial car was pelted with eggs and cheese as she arrived in
Nenagh Nenagh ( ; , or simply 'the Fair') is the county town of County Tipperary in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Nenagh used to be a market town, and the site of the East Munster Ormond Fair. Nenagh was the county town of the former county of Nort ...
, with protesters referring to the "ongoing downgrading of the ocalhospital".


FÁS expenses scandal

In 2004 she travelled to Florida with senior FÁS executives, department officials, and her husband, Brian Geoghegan, and was receiving more than €100-a-day subsistence money from the taxpayer when FÁS picked up her hairdressing bill in a Florida hotel. Like all government ministers travelling abroad, she was entitled to a daily allowance for "incidental expenses". In a RTÉ Radio 1 interview on 27 November 2008, Fianna Fáil TD Mary O'Rourke described Harney's involvement in the scandal as "a load of hoo-hah". On 28 November 2008, Harney defended her use of expenses while on a FÁS trip to the US, saying that she was "not on holiday", she had not used public taxes for her own
personal grooming Grooming (also called preening) is the art and practice of cleaning and maintaining parts of the body. It is a species-typical behavior. In animals Individual animals regularly clean themselves and put their fur, feathers or other skin c ...
, that the use of the government jet for the trip was made by the Taoiseach, and she had followed advice in claiming her expenses. She acknowledged meeting a relative for an hour while in the United States. Labour Party leader
Eamon Gilmore Eamon Gilmore (born 24 April 1955) is an Irish diplomat and former Labour Party politician. He has served as European Union Special Representative for Human Rights since February 2019. He has also been the European Union Special Envoy for th ...
told his party conference that Harney should resign because of her performance as Minister for Health.


Libel cases

In 2002, Harney settled a libel case with '' Magill'' magazine for around €25,000, and in 2004 she settled a case against the '' Sunday Independent'' for €70,000. In May 2011, she received a €450,000 in compensation from Newstalk radio for a slur made about her on live air by journalist Nell McCafferty.


Post-politics


Board memberships

In 2012, Harney joined the board of a new healthcare company, Cara. In her first interview since leaving office, Harney said she joined the boards of two Irish 'high-potential' start-ups, Cara Health and Ward Biotech. She was also employed in speaking engagements, saying: "I spoke at a recent surgeons' conference in New York on my experience as a health minister and in Berlin on the Irish pharma sector." In April 2012 Harney joined the board of car fleet insurer Euro Insurances, an Irish subsidiary of Dutch leasing giant Leaseplan. Indian pharma businessman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, appointed Harney to the board of Biocon, a Bangalore-based company employing 7,000 and expanding in
Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
.


2016 address

On 17 April 2016, Harney intervened in government formation talks, claiming the deadlock would damage "Ireland's reputation" in remarks made during her closing address at the three-day Women in Media conference in Ballybunion. In the same address Harney, who attended with husband Brian Geogheghan, claimed that "when she left public life she made a conscious decision to leave politics behind her".


Recognition

In 2019,
Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...
awarded Harney an honorary doctorate.


Personal life

In November 2001 Harney married Brian Geoghegan, a businessman, in a low-key afternoon ceremony in Dublin, on a day in which she attended to a number of significant political meetings.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harney, Mary 1953 births People from Ballinasloe Living people Auditors of the College Historical Society Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Politicians from County Galway Members of Dublin County Council Fianna Fáil TDs Fianna Fáil senators Independent TDs Leaders of Progressive Democrats Progressive Democrats TDs Members of the 22nd Dáil Members of the 23rd Dáil Members of the 24th Dáil Members of the 25th Dáil Members of the 26th Dáil Members of the 27th Dáil Members of the 28th Dáil Members of the 29th Dáil Members of the 30th Dáil 20th-century women Teachtaí Dála 21st-century women Teachtaí Dála Members of the 14th Seanad Nominated members of Seanad Éireann 20th-century women members of Seanad Éireann Ministers of State of the 26th Dáil Women government ministers of the Republic of Ireland Women ministers of state of the Republic of Ireland Tánaistí Ministers for enterprise, trade and employment Ministers for health of Ireland Women opposition leaders Chancellors of the University of Limerick Fianna Fáil local councillors