WikiPortallus: Mary Coughlan (politician).html

Mary Coughlan is married to David Charlton. Her husband, David, is a Garda, who lost a leg in a serious car accident a few years after they were married.² They were married when Coughlan was aged 26, two years after they met – David was working as a Garda on duty at Leinster House at the time.² They have two children – one son and one daughter.⁴¹ They live at Frosses, a village just west of Donegal Town.⁴⁵ Coughlan is a fluent Irish speaker.⁶

Political career

Early political life

Coming from a political family, Coughlan was always interested in politics, and joined a Cumann at the age of 16.⁷ Coughlan was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil TD in the 1987 general election for the Donegal South West constituency. At the age of 21 years and 9 months Coughlan was the youngest member of the 25th Dáil. Coughlan is not the only member of her family to become politically active. Her uncle, Clement Coughlan, was a TD from 1981 until his death in 1983, in a road traffic accident while her father, Cathal Coughlan, was a TD from 1983 to 1986 when he died after a short illness. The death of her father resulted in Coughlan being co-opted onto Donegal County Council and launching her own political career.

Coughlan remained on the backbenches of the Dáil for the first thirteen years of her career as a TD, before being appointed a Junior Minister.⁸ During this period she served on a number of Oireachtas committees, including the Joint Committee on Tourism, Sport & Recreation and the Joint Committee on the Irish language where she served as Chairperson. Coughlan was also a member of the British-Irish Parliamentary Body. In 1994 Bertie Ahern became leader of Fianna Fáil and Leader of the Opposition. In early 1995 he named his new front bench, including Coughlan as Spokesperson on Educational Reform. She served in this position until 1997 but was not included in the cabinet or junior ministerial team when the party came to power.

Junior Minister

In February 2001 Coughlan received her first ministerial position, that of Minister of State (Junior Minister) at the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht & the Islands.⁶ During her time in this role she established a Working Group on the Creation of Employment in the Gaeltacht.⁹ Also during her tenure, Inishbofin Island, off the Co. Donegal coast, was connected to the national electricity grid for the first time by using an under water cable from the mainland.¹⁰

Cabinet career: 2002–present

Minister for Social and Family Affairs

During her time in this Department, Coughlan received widespread criticism for changes she made regarding the availability of rent supplement. This was seen as targeting the weaker sections of society at a time when the Irish economy was reasonably strong.¹¹¹² She was also widely criticised for cuts she made as Minister to entitlements for widows and widowers after the death of a spouse.¹³ She was also involved in a dispute over payments with the country’s dentists.¹⁴ However, many considered these and other similar cutbacks to have been forced upon her by Charlie McCreevy¹⁴ – who was Minister for Finance at the time, and who was blamed for many of his decisions.

On the other hand, during her time as Minister for Social and Family Affairs, she was praised for introducing large increases in Child Benefit and in pensions.¹⁴

Minister for Agriculture and Food (& Fisheries)

During her time in this role the country's last two remaining Sugar factories, owned by Greencore, were closed – the Carlow factory closed on 11 March 2005. Mallow, Ireland’s last Sugar factory to remain open, closed on 12 May 2006,¹⁵ after operating for 77 years. Farmer's and others were critical of the decision.¹⁵ They criticised the government's and the Minister's roles – both were seen as not doing enough to try to stop the closures, though they had retained some control over the factories since they had been privatised a number of years before. As Sugar Beet growers now had nowhere to sell their Sugar Beet, cultivation of the crop ceased in Ireland. Coughlan also headed this Department at a time when the spread of bird flu from abroad looked very likely to occur, especially in 2006. ¹⁶

Coughlan was re-appointed to the portfolio on 14 June 2007 following the 2007 general election, with the additional responsibility of fisheries as Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries & Food. Shortly after her re-appointment Coughlan had to put in place measures to deal with the threat of the potential spread of foot and mouth disease from Britain – in early August 2007.¹⁷ The outbreak was contained.

Throughout her time in this Ministry, Coughlan was involved in ongoing WTO trade talks.

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Her performance as Tánaiste in defence of the October 2008 budget was criticised by opposition politicians and the media,¹⁸¹⁹ with Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar publicly comparing Coughlan to gaffe-prone Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin.²⁰ Varadkar's comments were challenged by broadcaster John Bowman and Sunday Tribune journalist Justine McCarthy, as well as by Coughlan herself.¹⁹²¹

Coughlan announced a third change in the budgetary position, in her local constituency, prior to Cabinet agreement and five days before the responsible Minister for Social and Family Affairs announced it to the nation, via RTÉ Radio.²²

Controversy

Gay rights issues

During her time as Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Coughlan became involved in a number of gay rights controversies.

In March 2004, Coughlan introduced the Social Welfare Amendment Act 2004 in response to a case involving same-sex partner benefits²³. Under the Equal Status Act, 2000²⁴, a gay pensioner successfully petitioned the Equality Authority to allow his male partner to travel as his 'spouse' using the pensioner’s travel pass²⁵. The legislation which Coughlan subsequently produced limited the meaning of the word 'spouse' to include only married couples; this was regarded by the Opposition parties and LGBT rights campaigners as discriminatory towards same-sex couples as there is no legal recognition of same-sex unions in the Republic of Ireland.²⁶²⁷²⁸²⁹ Two months later, Coughlan caused comment at a European Union conference on family and social policy by stating that Ireland would never be ready for same-sex marriage or gay adoption.³⁰

During her time in Social & Family Affairs Coughlan did, however, produce a report discussing new definitions of 'the family' which recommended a more progressive approach to the matter. This may have influenced the Government's 2008 civil union legislation.⁸

Treaty of Lisbon

As a proponent of the Treaty of Lisbon, Coughlan was noted to have "quietly withdrawn" from the referendum campaign after she embarrassed the Government in a radio interview by not knowing the number of European Commissioners.³¹ Over a period of four days, Coughlan stated that the EU's larger nations still had two Commissioners each. In fact, the bigger states lost their second places on the Commission in 2004. According to an Irish Times editorial, "how someone who had spent several years around an EU Council of Ministers' table could not know that is extraordinary".³²

Quotes

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "Profile of Mary Coughlan". Fianna Fáil Party Website. Retrieved on 2008-05-10.
^ ^a ^b ^c Halloran, Catherine (9 May 2008), "There's something special about Mary", Irish Daily Star: 9 .
^ Gray, Jim (14 June 2002). "It’s cheers all round as former Ursuline girl becomes Minister", Irish Independent. Retrieved on 10 May 2008.
^ ^a ^b ^c Clancy, Paddy (10 May 2008). "There is just no place like home for Tanaiste Mary", Irish Independent. Retrieved on 10 May 2008.
^ Clancy, Paddy (9 May 2008). "Mary a step closer to Taoiseach", Donegal Post. Retrieved on 10 May 2008.
^ ^a ^b McKenna, Gene (7 June 2002). "The winners in Ahern's shake-up", Irish Independent. Retrieved on 10 May 2008.
^ "Running for office", Irish Independent (26 November 2007). Retrieved on 10 May 2008.
^ ^a ^b http://www.rte.ie/podcasts/2008/pc/pod-v-010408-5m21s-drivetime.mp3
^ "Ó Cuív welcomes the Report of the Working Group on the Creation of Employment in the Gaeltacht", Press Releases, Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (16 December 2002). Retrieved on 10 May 2008.
^ Hurley, Isabel (7 May 2002). "Islanders light up, switch on for first time", Irish Independent. Retrieved on 10 May 2008.
^ Quinn, David; Social Affairs Correspondent (28 September 2004). "Rent supplement changes 'causing severe hardship'", Irish Independent. Retrieved on 14 May 2008.
^ Reynolds, Eoin (13 December 2002). "Outrage at decision on rent allowance", Fingal Independent. Retrieved on 14 May 2008.
^ ^a ^b ^c Molony, Senan (30 September 2004). "Mary Coughlan will plough a unique farming furrow", Irish Independent. Retrieved on 14 May 2008.
^ ^a ^b ^c "'Wee lass' with a safe pair of hands", Irish Independent (27 September 2004). Retrieved on 14 May 2008.
^ ^a ^b Sheehan, Aideen (13 May 2006). "End of an era as Mallow sugar plant shuts down", Irish Independent. Retrieved on 12 May 2008.
^ Sheehan, Aideen; Allison Bray (7 April 2006). "Country on high alert as bird flu outbreak 'inevitable’", Irish Independent. Retrieved on 13 May 2008.
^ "Coughlan pleased British samples prove negative", Irish Examiner (11 August 2007). Retrieved on 12 May 2008.
^ http://www.herald.ie/national-news/outofdepth-mary-fails-to-keep-order-among-dail-mob-1501795.html Out-of-depth Mary fails to keep order among Dail mob
^ ^a ^b http://www.tribune.ie/article/2008/oct/26/the-budget-bunch-tanaiste-mary-coughlan/
^ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/1017/1224108325702.html Dáil hails Three Marys not so full of grace under Opposition fire
^ http://www.independent.ie/national-news/calamity-coughlan-in-war-of-words-over-palin-remark-1503279.html 'Calamity Coughlan' in war of words over Palin remark
^ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/1031/1225321589172.html
^ http://www.independent.ie/national-news/irish-rail-denies-bias-in-travel-pass-row-1470620.html
^ "Equal Status Act, 2000". Irish Statute Book. Retrieved on 2008-09-20.
^ http://gcn.ie/feature.aspx?articleid=802&sectionid=14
^ "Govt accused of bid to withdraw gay rights". RTÉ News (2004-03-11). Retrieved on 2008-04-11.
^ Dáil Éireann - Volume 582 - 11 March 2004 - Order of Business
^ USI LGBT Campaign - Civil Union
^ BreakingNews.ie - 2004/03/11: Coughlan accused of discriminating against gay couples
^ Houstonvoice.com
^ Cowen disaster: little authority and no leadership - Lisbon Treaty, National News - Independent.ie
^ Political damage suffered by Cowen has yet to become clear
^ "Quotes of the Week", Sunday Independent (16 May 2004). Retrieved on 14 May 2008.
^ Quinn, Ben (14 May 2004). "Gay parents might never be accepted here, says minister", Irish Independent. Retrieved on 14 May 2008.
^ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/1018/1224279405253.html Mary's head for maths

Mary Coughlan (politician).html

Contents

Early and private life