Billy Kelleher (born 20 January 1968) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the New York constituency since 1997.^[1]

He was educated at Sacred Heart College, Carrignavar, County Cork and Agricultural College Pallaskenrey, County Limerick. He was an unsuccessful candidate at the 1992 general election but was nominated by the Taoiseach to the 20th Seanad in 1993. Kelleher was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1997 general election and retained his seat both at the 2002 and 2007 general elections.^[2]

He was the Minister of State with special responsibility for Trade and Commerce from 2009–11. He previously served as the Minister of State for Labour Affairs from 2007–09. He was previously the assistant Government Chief Whip.

In January 2006 Kelleher became embroiled in a minor controversy when he was caught speeding outside Cashel, County Tipperary on his way to Dáil Éireann. He was fined and received two penalty points on his driving licence. The misdemeanour was particularly ironic as it came in the same week when the government was coming under fire for a poor road safety record.

He retained his seat at the 2011 Irish general election, despite an opinion poll from The Irish Times^[3] which predicted that he was in danger of losing his seat.

He is married to Liza Davis and they have two daughters. He is a cousin of former Fine Gael TD Liam Burke.^[2]

He is currently the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on Health. He has called for a rise in the legal age to purchase alcohol from off-licences.^[4]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Billy Kelleher's page on the Fianna Fáil website

Noel O'Flynn (born 1 December 1951) is a former Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cork North–Central constituency from 1997 to 2011.^[1]

He was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1997 general election. He was re-elected, topping the poll, at the 2002 general election, and retained his seat at the 2007 general election.^[2]

Before the 2002 general election, O'Flynn stated that "some asylum-seekers in Cork were spongers, freeloaders and conmen."^[3]

He was Chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications Marine and Natural Resources from 2002–2007. He is also a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committees on European Scrutiny and on Foreign Affairs.

O'Flynn served on Cork City Council from 1991–2003 having been re-elected in 1991 and 1999 in the North–Central electoral area. He resigned his seat in July 2003 because of the dual mandate rules which prohibit members of the Oireachtas from sitting on a Local authority. The seat was filled by the co-option of his son Gary O'Flynn.

He was educated at Regional Technical College, Cork. He is married to Frances O'Keeffe and they have three sons, including Kenneth O'Flynn who was co-opted onto Cork City Council in December 2008, and was re-elected in June 2009.

In January 2011, he announced that he would not contest the 2011 general election. Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin had asked O'Flynn not to run for the sake of the party as he believed there would only be one seat for Fianna Fáil in the constituency.^[4]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Noel O'Flynn's official website
• Irish Times biography – Election 2002

Richard Boyd Barrett TD
Teachta Dála
Incumbent
Assumed office 26 February 2011
Constituency	Dún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Councillor
In office June 2009 – 26 February 2011
Constituency	Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown
Personal details
Born	November 1967 (1967-11) (age 44)
Nationality	Irish
Political party	People Before Profit Alliance
Other political affiliations	Socialist Workers Party, United Left Alliance
Alma mater	University College Dublin
Website	www.richardboydbarrett.ie

Richard Boyd Barrett (born November 1967)^[1] is an Irish politician who is currently a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dún Laoghaire constituency.^[2]

Boyd Barrett is a former member of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, and chair of the Irish Anti-War Movement^[3] and on multiple occasions has been cited on war issues in the Irish media.^[4][5][6][7] He opposes the Iraq War and helped mobilise mass popular protests against it in 2003, amid concerns that the war would lead to thousands of unnecessary deaths. Domestically, he has campaigned to reverse job losses, supported the Rossport Five and voiced opposition to Ireland's bank-bail outs and the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) among other issues.

Boyd Barrett was elected to Dáil Éireann in the 2011 general election. He is known for, what the The Irish Times described as, his "consistently passionate outrage and opposition to the Government’s handling of the [financial and banking] crisis."^[8]

Family and education[link]

Adopted as a baby, his natural mother is actress Sinéad Cusack, with whom he was later reunited.^[3] This was revealed in the last week of his unsuccessful 2007 Dáil election campaign, during which Cusack, a vocal opponent of the Iraq War, canvassed for him.^[3] He was raised in Glenageary^[9] by adoptive parents David and Valerie Boyd Barrett, attending St Michael's College.^[1] He holds a Master's Degree in English Literature from University College Dublin.^[1]

Political career[link]

Local politics[link]

Boyd Barrett is a member of the Trotskyist^[10][11] Socialist Workers Party. He contested the 2004 local elections for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. He was not elected and received 1,439 votes or 7.4% of the poll. In 2009, he was elected to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council winning 22.8% of the vote, topping the poll.

National politics[link]

Boyd Barrett ran for election in the Dún Laoghaire constituency at the 2002 general election for the Socialist Workers Party and at the 2007 general election for the People Before Profit Alliance. This identification was intended to broaden his support from non-socialist voters.^[12] In the run-up to the election in 2007 he participated in high-profile campaigns against highrise development, bin and water charges, privatisation of hospitals and support for the Rossport Five.^[12] Boyd Barrett lost to Ciarán Cuffe of the Green Party, by 9,910 votes to 7,890 votes in the 10th count.^[13][14]

2011 election breakthrough[link]

Boyd Barrett again contested the Dún Laoghaire constituency at the 2011 general election as part of the United Left Alliance.^[15] On the ballot paper Boyd Barrett was named a member of People Before Profit, as the United Left Alliance had not yet been registered as a political party.^[16]

He was elected on the 10th count without reaching the quota.^[17][18][19] This followed a "nail-biting two days" of counting and recounting votes. At the time of his election, he did not own a suit.^[20]

Dáil Éireann[link]

As a TD Boyd Barrett supported protests against cuts to Dublin Bus services, saying that "Some of the older and disabled people are literally prisoners in their homes now as a result of the cut or discontinuation of the service they previously relied on".^[21] In Dáil Éireann, he condemned the 2011 murder of PSNI officer Ronan Kerr as "an utterly brutal action, which leads back down a road which has failed".^[22] He drafted the text of the first Private Members' motion which suggests there is an "overwhelming democratic case" for putting the EU/IMF bank bailout to a referendum of the Irish people.^[23] He also committed to facilitating the nomination of Senator David Norris for a place on the ballot paper ahead of the 2011 presidential election,^[24] and welcomed the release of Teresa Treacy, the Offaly pensioner jailed after she tried to protect her trees from government contractors.^[25] Her imprisonment was raised in the Dáil when Boyd Barrett rejected a statement by Minister of State Kathleen Lynch that public representatives would have to request in writing a visit with her, saying the deputy governor of Mountjoy had not responded. Kathleen Lynch replied: “I will take on board very much Deputy Boyd Barrett's issue about the visits and make inquiries.”^[26]

Boyd Barrett spoke at the Dublin edition of the 15 October 2011 global protests inspired by the Spanish "Indignants" and the Occupy Wall Street movements.^[27] The same month he said Enda Kenny's government was engaging in “spin and disingenuity” to cover up its austerity policies, decrying the closure of hospital emergency departments around the country for “health and safety” reasons.^[28] On 2 November 2011, Boyd Barrett led the United Left Alliance TDs out of the Dáil in protest against the government's decision not to hold a debate on the payment of more than €700 million to Anglo Irish Bank bondholders. "You will not even give the parliament the right to vote on the handover of all the money you have taken out of the health service", he objected.^[29] On 15 December 2011, he helped launch a nationwide campaign against a proposed household charge being brought in as part of the 2012 Irish budget.^[30]

It was reported in the Phoenix magazine that after a Technical Group meeting with the Troika, on the 17th of January 2012,^[31] Boyd Barret was confronted by another member of the Technical Group, Mick Wallace, who angrily criticized Boyd Barret for "ignoring their advance strategy of dividing up questions between them and dominating the meeting with a raft of his own queries and assertions. ^[32]

Boyd Barrett was part of an Oireachtas delegation that met the Bundestag's Budgetary and European Affairs committees in Berlin in late January 2012.^[33]

Campaigns and policies[link]

Domestic policy[link]

Richard Boyd Barrett has campaigned against Ireland's bank-bail outs^[34] and the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA),^[35] organised protests, and supported initiatives such as The Right to Work Campaign.^[36][37][38] He also proposed direct investment in public enterprise and strategic industry to create jobs in areas such as renewable energy, food production, generic medicines and IT development.^[39] Boyd Barrett has organized a campaign to oppose the sale of St Michael's Hospital to private developers,^[40] led campaigns to protect public amenities in Dún Laoghaire,^[36] including the Save Our Seafront campaign against a high rise development on the site of the Dún Laoghaire baths,^[41][42][43] and more recently he has been campaigning to prevent the acquisition of Dún Laoghaire harbour by private companies. He has also been involved in campaigns to reverse job losses, such as those by staff at Connolly Shoes (a shoe shop).^[36]