Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann
Incumbent Seán Barrett since 9 March 2011
Appointer	Elected by the members of Dáil Éireann at start of a new term after a general election.
Term length	No term limits are imposed on the office.
Inaugural holder	Cathal Brugha
Formation	21 January 1919
Website	ceanncomhairle.oireachtas.ie

Ireland

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The Ceann Comhairle (Irish pronunciation: [kʲaːn̪ˠ ˈkoːrʎə], "head of the council") is the chairman^[1] (or speaker)^[1] of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (parliament) of Ireland. The person who holds the position is elected by members of the Dáil from among their number in the first session after each general election. The Ceann Comhairle of the 31st Dáil is Seán Barrett, TD.

Overview[link]

The Ceann Comhairle is expected to observe strict impartiality. Despite this, a government usually tries to select a member of its own political party for the position, if it has enough deputies to allow that choice. In order to protect the neutrality of the chair, the Constitution of Ireland provides that an incumbent Ceann Comhairle does not seek re-election as a Teachta Dála (Deputy to the Dáil) but rather is deemed automatically to have been re-elected by their constituency at a general election, unless they are retiring.^[2] As a consequence, the constituency that an incumbent Ceann Comhairle represents elects one fewer TD in a general election than its usual entitlement, but still has the same number of TDs.^[2]

The Ceann Comhairle does not take part in debates nor vote except in the event of a tie. In this event he generally votes in accordance with the parliamentary conventions relating to the Speaker of the British House of Commons, which tend to amount to voting against motions. The Ceann Comhairle formally opens each day's sitting by reading the official prayer. The Ceann Comhairle is the sole judge of order in the house and has a number of special functions. Specifically, the Ceann Comhairle:

• Calls on members to speak. All speeches must be addressed to the Ceann Comhairle.
• Puts such questions to the house and supervises and declares the results of divisions.
• Has authority to suppress disorder. To ensure obedience to his rulings the Ceann Comhairle may order members to withdraw from the Dáil or suspend an individual from the House for a period. In the case of great disorder the Ceann Comhairle can suspend or adjourn the house.
• Rings a bell^[3] when deputies are out of order.

History[link]

The position of Ceann Comhairle is as old as the Dáil, which was first established in 1919.^[4] The first Ceann Comhairle was Cathal Brugha, who served for only one day, presiding over the house's symbolic first meeting, before leaving the post to become Príomh Aire (prime minister). The office was continued under the 1922–1937 Irish Free State, the constitution of which referred to the office-holder as the "Chairman of Dáil Éireann". The practice of automatically re-electing the Ceann Comhairle in a general election was introduced by a constitutional amendment in 1927. For a brief period from 1936 to 1937, following the abolition of the office of Governor-General, certain of the Governor-General's functions were transferred to the Ceann Comhairle, who was assigned the role of signing bills into law and convening and dissolving the Dáil. The position of Ceann Comhairle was retained when the Constitution of Ireland was adopted in 1937, as was the practice of automatic re-election.

List of office-holders[link]

Ceann Comhairle[link]

Leas-Cheann Comhairle[link]

The Leas-Cheann Comhairle holds office as the Deputy Chairman of Dáil Éireann under Article 15.9.1 of the Constitution. In the absence of the Ceann Comhairle, the Leas-Cheann Comhairle deputises and performs the duties and exercises the authority of the Ceann Comhairle in Dáil proceedings.^[6] The current Leas-Cheann Comhairle is Fianna Fáil TD, Michael Kitt. By tradition, the position is reserved for the Opposition, but the appointment is made by the Taoiseach of the day.^[7] The role carries the same pay and the same status as that of a Minister of State.

See also[link]

• Cathaoirleach
• Politics of the Republic of Ireland
• History of the Republic of Ireland
• Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic)
• Dáil Éireann (Irish Free State)
• Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly (known as Ceann Comhairle in the Irish language)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Lough Lene Bell, maquette photo

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (May 2010)

Richard "Dick" Spring (born 29 August 1950) is an Irish businessman and former politician. He was first elected as a Labour Party Teachta Dála (TD) in 1981 and retained his seat until 2002. He became leader of the Labour Party in 1982, and held this position until 1997. He served as Minister for the Environment (1982–1983), Minister for Energy (1983–1987) and Minister for Foreign Affairs (1993–November 1994, December 1994–1997). He also served as Tánaiste during those three governments.^[1]

Early life[link]

Spring was born in Tralee, County Kerry in 1950 and was educated by the Cistercian monks at Cistercian College in Roscrea, County Tipperary, and at Trinity College, Dublin, and qualified as a barrister at King's Inns.

Sporting career[link]

Spring played Gaelic football and hurling for Kerry in the seventies.^[2] He played his club football with the Kerins O'Rahilly's club in Tralee and hurling with Crotta O'Neill's. His father Dan won 2 All-Ireland Senior Football Championships in 1939 and 1940.

He then won rugby union caps for Munster, and lined out for London Irish in England. He also was capped for Ireland seven times, debuting against Scotland on January 21, 1978 at Landsdowne Road, and receiving his last international cap on February 21, 1981 against Wales at Cardiff Arms Park.^[3]

Political career[link]

Early career[link]

Spring's political life began in 1979 when he successfully contested the local elections in Tralee. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann in the general election of 1981 for the constituency of Kerry North, the seat previously held by his father Dan Spring.^[4] The Labour Party formed a coalition Government with Fine Gael and Spring was appointed a junior minister on his first day as a deputy. When Michael O'Leary resigned as Party leader after the February 1982 general election, Spring allowed his name go forward in the leadership contest. He easily defeated Barry Desmond and Michael D. Higgins but inherited the leadership of a deeply divided party. Spring was a strong opponent of far left wing anti-coalition politics and systematically removed trotskyist left-wing activists from the party. Most notably he expelled the Militant Tendency (later Socialist Party), including Joe Higgins and Clare Daly.

Ministerial appointment[link]

Following the November 1982 general election Labour again formed a coalition government with Fine Gael. Spring was appointed Tánaiste and Minister for the Environment. He was closely involved in the negotiations which led to the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985. In 1987 Spring and the Labour Party withdrew from the government on budgetary issues and Fianna Fáil took power in the subsequent election. Spring himself narrowly escaped losing his seat when he was re-elected by just 4 votes.

Opposition[link]

Under Spring, the Labour Party selected Mary Robinson as its candidate in the 1990 presidential election. Robinson was elected, and this success enhanced the credibility of his leadership of the party. For Spring, his period in opposition coincided, with the exposure of a number of business scandals and gave him the opportunity to shine as critic of the Fianna Fáil government led by the controversial Charles Haughey.

"Spring Tide" and return to power[link]

As a result, in the 1992 general election the party increased its Dáil seats from 15 to 33, its then largest ever number of seats, an event which is referred to as the "Spring Tide". After the election, no government could be elected when the new Dáil met. After some weeks of stalemate, Spring decided to enter negotiations with Reynolds over the Christmas period on a new Programme for Government. The Labour Party then entered a coalition government with Fianna Fáil, and thus returned Albert Reynolds, who had taken over as Taoiseach (Prime Minister) from Mr. Haughey at the beginning of the year, to power. Spring was appointed Tánaiste for the second time, and also Minister for Foreign Affairs. This was approved by a special party conference of over 1,000 delegates at Dublin's National Concert Hall in January 1993, though there were some Labour Party TDs, who dissented from the leadership position.

Labour took six of the fifteen cabinet ministries and had much of its election manifesto accepted by Fianna Fáil. New Departments of Equality and Law Reform, and of Arts and Culture, were established. Ethics legislation was to outlaw conflicts of interest. Male homosexual acts were to be decrminalised. Purchase of condoms without medical prescription was to be allowed. An extensive programme of family law reform and provision for a divorce referendum was to be undertaken. Spring insisted on a formalised system of programme managers, and state paid advisers to push the new Government's policy platform.

However support for the Labour Party declined, particularly as many voters felt betrayed at Labour for going into government with Fianna Fáil. In 1994, the Labour Party performed disastrously in by-elections, in Dublin South–Central and in Cork North–Central. In both these cases, these seats were won by Democratic Left. This had grave implications for the policy of the Labour leadership within the party. Clearly Labour was not doing well electorally, and needed to assess its role in the coalition.

Reynolds had wished to appoint the Attorney General, Harry Whelehan, as President of the High Court, for over one month. Spring had reservations about Whelehan being suitable, due to the alleged laxity of his handling of a particular child abuse criminal case, involving a disgraced Catholic priest. Reynolds, for his part could not understand why Spring was against Whelehan being nominated to the High Court, but had no concerns with Whelehan serving as attorney general. Reynolds became annoyed with Spring's stance, his failure to communicate his reservations, and decided to proceed anyway, whilst calling Spring's bluff. Spring withdrew with his ministers from the cabinet meeting which proceeded to recommend Mr Whelehan's appointment to the President. Immediately after, Reynolds implemented the decision.

There then continued a rather heated discussion in the Dáil, concerning the appointment. Fine Gael started asking questions about Whelehans suitability, and objectivity. This was supportive of Spring's position. Democratic Left TD Pat Rabbitte then implied that the Catholic hierarchy were instructing Reynolds to appoint Whelehan. Reynolds became irate with this allegation, and responeded angrily. Reynolds now realised that Spring was uncompromising about Whelehan. In an effort to regain the government, Reynolds removed Whelehan. However Spring refused to go back into government with Reynolds. Whelehan served as President of the High Court for one day.

Spring proceeded to withdraw from government. The minority Reynolds government then lost a vote of confidence in the Dáil. Reynolds resigned as party leader, but continued as a caretaker Taoiseach. Spring entered into negotiations with Reynolds' new successor, Bertie Ahern, the Minister for Finance. They agreed to reform the Fianna Fáil-Labour Government in early December. On the eve of that government being formed, the Irish Times published a report that Mr Ahern knew more about an aspect of the scandal that had brought down Reynolds than had previously been known. Spring broke off negotiations with Fianna Fáil. Spring pursued negotiations to form a coalition with Fine Gael and Democratic Left. In December Labour, with Fine Gael and Democratic Left formed a coalition government, referred to as the 'Rainbow Coalition', before an election was called. Spring returned to his positions as Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs. This was the first occasion on which a new Irish government was formed without a general election. The previous Fianna Fáil and Labour Programme for Government was substantially adopted by the new government and in return for making John Bruton the Taoiseach, Ruairi Quinn of Labour became the first ever Labour Minister for Finance.

During his period as Foreign Minister, Spring with Reynolds was involved in negotiations leading to the Provisional Irish Republican Army and loyalist ceasefires of 1994 and the Belfast Agreement of 1998. With Albert Reynolds, he received warm applause in the Dáil on the announcement of the Downing Street Declaration in December 1993. He also advanced Ireland's membership of the Partnership for Peace, a sister organization of NATO a controversial issue due to Ireland's policy of neutrality.

Resignation as party leader and defeat as TD[link]

In the 1997 general election the Labour Party returned to opposition, winning only 17 of its outgoing 33 seats. This was considered by some to be a punishment by the electorate for the 1993 decision to enter coalition with Fianna Fáil. By others, it was considered a punishment for changing horses at the end of 1994, in order to remain in power. A front page article in the Irish Independent, on the day prior to the election titled 'Payback Time', calling on support for Fianna Fáil, had a direct and severe impact on the Labour Party. The Independent newspaper group had revealed many scandals involving Labour ministers abusing the perks of office in the year leading up to the election. The article was controversial as Spring had taken decisions in office which went against the broader business interests of the Independent's owner Anthony O'Reilly who was accused by Labour supporters of having attempted to use his paper's political influence to intimidate the Government into favouring companies linked to O'Reilly. The impact of the article is uncertain but the Labour Party suffered significant electoral losses and the outgoing coalition was defeated. In the Presidential election of the same year the Labour Party candidate, Adi Roche, came fourth out of five candidates. Following that defeat, Spring resigned as Labour Party leader, having served 15 years - one of the longest serving party leaders of Ireland.

He remained a TD, being appointed a director in the formerly state owned recently privatized telecommunications company Eircom in 1999. It's initial flotation led to a stock market bubble which affected a large number of small shareholders. ^[5] It was later revealed that he did not purchase shares in the company. ^[6]

Spring lost his seat in a shock result at the 2002 general election to the Sinn Féin candidate, Martin Ferris. He has not sought political office since.

Political legacy[link]

In Irish political circles, the role of foreign minister was considered a poisoned chalice because of the challenge of resolving the delicate problem of how to de-escalate tensions in Northern Ireland, when both sides were wary of Irish governmental policy. Albert Reynolds, and Dick Spring, placed Northern Ireland at the top of the government agenda. Both were helped considerably by the initiative of John Hume, and the understanding built up between Reynolds, and British Prime Minister John Major. Spring devoted considerable energy and resources towards increasing Ireland's international influence and diplomatic ties in UN, in the post Cold War world.

As Foreign Minister, there was much critical comment in the media on Spring's extensive foreign travel. Spring got even harsher criticism, for using the Government Jet to reduce journey times between his home in Tralee and his office in Dublin. However, he did conduct, for the first time, a public consultative process that involved a wide range of citizenry and social groups as well as members of the diaspora, in the re-shaping of Irish foreign policy through the first ever White Paper on Foreign Policy in 1996.^[7]

Critics of Dick Spring, have described him as a Champagne socialist due to his choice of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel when staying in New York as Foreign Minister, instead of staying in the then Irish-owned Fitzpatrick Hotel.^[8] Spring brought the Irish Labour party unprecedented visibility and power in government, at a time when the two significantly larger, right-of-centre political blocs, had precedence in every election. He advocated and successfully implemented, policies that were contrary to Catholic social teaching, which had always been a consideration in influencing Irish policy until the 1980s. In the aftermath of many scandals involving clerical sex abuse cases, and against a backdrop of rapidly declining confidence in the Catholic Church as an institution amongst the public at large, Spring found an opportunity to amend state policy, and steer social policy in a secular direction.

Subsequent life[link]

Spring later became involved in the Cyprus dispute as a United Nations envoy.

Spring received a directorship appointment to the Irish state telecom enterprise, Eircom, in advance of the scheduled privatisation. As leader of a left of centre party, this was to endorse the privatization, and gain consent from the labour unions to the privatisation plan. However the privatisation was a financial disaster for members of the public, who became ordinary shareholders in the privatisation process. Spring became the target for much of the discontent. Spring's low work involvement, and generous remuneration package, was openly described as 'scandalous', by shareholder advocate Senator Shane Ross. He continues to hold a directorship, with the Financial Services firm FEXCO, based in Killorglin, County Kerry.

Spring lives in Tralee with his wife Kristi (née Hutcheson), an American whom he met while working in New York as a bartender. They have three children. His nephew Arthur Spring is a Labour Party Teachta Dála (TD) for Kerry North–West Limerick having first been a councillor for the Tralee electoral area of Kerry County Council. Spring is a member of Ballybunion Golf Club, and has invited former U.S. President Bill Clinton, amongst others to this location.

He is a director of Allied Irish Bank and receives annual pension payments of €121,108.^[9]

See also[link]

• Families in the Oireachtas

References[link]

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]

Critics, such as the print and broadcast journalist Vincent Browne, have described Boyd Barrett's economic views as "Cloud Cuckooland".^[44]

Foreign policy[link]

Boyd Barrett helped to organize mass protests against the war in Iraq in 2003.^[45][46] He addressed the Dublin leg of the March 20, 2003 International Day of Action.^[47] He said that it was "almost certain" that any war would lead to between 50,000 and 100,000 deaths.^[48] He said "the complicity of the Irish Government in this murderous war through providing facilities for the US military at Shannon airport" was "an absolute disgrace" and urged people to protest in their thousands "to show this carnage is not being mounted in our names".^[49] In 2009 he supported the pro-democracy protests in Iran.^[50]

In March 2005, according to the Irish Anti-War organization, Boyd Barrett attended the Cairo Anti-war Conference in Cairo, Egypt, focusing on American intervention in Iraq.^[51]

In 2007, he called for Ibrahim Moussawi, head of the Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar TV station, to be allowed to enter Ireland to attend a Dublin conference organised by the Irish Anti-War Movement. According to the Irish Independent, Boyd Barrett said that banning Moussawi amounted to the suppression of "free public debate in the country".^[52]

In April 2009 Boyd Barrett addressed the Al-Aqsa Conference in Dublin.^[53] He said that Israel is "a state built on violence, oppression and apartheid" and "has no right to exist as long as it denies rights to Palestinians.”^[53]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2011)

Richard Newell Boyd (b. 19 May 1942, Washington, D.C.; Ph.D. MIT 1970) is an American philosopher who has spent most of his career at Cornell University,^[1] though he also taught briefly at Harvard University, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the University of California, Berkeley. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the University of Melbourne in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

He is well-known in philosophy of science circles as a philosophical realist and a scientific realist. In moral philosophy circles he is a leading defender of moral realism. His co-edited book The Philosophy of Science (ISBN 0-262-52156-3) is widely used in undergraduate and graduate philosophy courses. He has also made important contributions to the development of Cornell realism, a distinctly naturalistic position in moral philosophy.

Boyd's doctoral thesis, directed by Hilary Putnam, is called "A recursion-theoretic characterization of the ramified analytical hierarchy", and his degree was one of the first Ph.Ds awarded in philosophy by MIT.

See also[link]

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Page

This biography of an American philosopher is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Alan Shatter TD
Minister for Justice and Equality
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 March 2011
Preceded by	Brendan Smith (Justice and Law Reform)
Minister for Defence
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 March 2011
Preceded by	Éamon Ó Cuív
Teachta Dála
Incumbent
Assumed office May 2007
In office June 1981 – May 2002
Constituency	Dublin South
Personal details
Born	Alan Joseph Shatter (1951-02-14) 14 February 1951 (age 61) Dublin, Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Political party	Fine Gael
Spouse(s)	Carol Shatter
Children	2
Residence	Ballinteer
Alma mater	Trinity College, Dublin
Profession	Solicitor
Religion	Orthodox Judaism
Website	www.alanshatter.com

Alan Joseph Shatter (born 14 February 1951) is an Irish Fine Gael politician. He is a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South constituency and has been the Minister for Justice and Equality and Minister for Defence since March 2011.^[1]

Background and early life[link]

Shatter was born in Dublin to a Jewish family. He was educated at The High School, Dublin and Trinity College, Dublin. He has always lived in Dublin — he grew up in Rathgar and Rathfarnham and lives now in Ballinteer with his wife Carol and two children. He is the only Jewish member of Dáil Éireann.

Political career[link]