Mary Harney | |
|---|---|
 Harney in 2007 | |
| Minister for Health and Children | |
| In office 29 September 2004 – 19 January 2011 | |
| Taoiseach | |
| Preceded by | Micheál Martin |
| Succeeded by | Mary Coughlan |
| Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment | |
| In office 26 June 1997 – 13 September 2004 | |
| Taoiseach | Bertie Ahern |
| Preceded by | Richard Bruton |
| Succeeded by | Micheál Martin |
| Tánaiste | |
| In office 26 June 1997 – 13 September 2006 | |
| Taoiseach | Bertie Ahern |
| Preceded by | Dick Spring |
| Succeeded by | Michael McDowell |
| Leader of the Progressive Democrats | |
| In office 25 May 2007 – 17 April 2008 | |
| Preceded by | Michael McDowell |
| Succeeded by | Ciarán Cannon |
| In office 26 October 1993 – 11 September 2006 | |
| Preceded by | Desmond O'Malley |
| Succeeded by | Michael McDowell |
| Minister of State | |
| 1989–1992 | Environment |
| Teachta Dála | |
| In office May 2002 – February 2011 | |
| Constituency | Dublin Mid-West |
| In office June 1981 – May 2002 | |
| Constituency | Dublin South-West |
| Senator | |
| In office 27 October 1977 – 11 June 1981 | |
| Constituency | Nominated by the Taoiseach |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1953-03-11)11 March 1953 (age 72) Ballinasloe,County Galway, Ireland |
| Political party | Independent (since 2009) |
| Other political affiliations |
|
| Spouse | |
| Alma mater | Trinity College Dublin |
Mary Harney (born 11 March 1953) is an Irish former politician and the formerChancellor of theUniversity of Limerick.[1]
She was leader of theProgressive Democrats party between 1993 and 2006 and again from 2007 to 2008, resuming the role after her successor,Michael McDowell, lost his seat at the2007 general election. She is thesecond longest-ever-serving female member ofDáil Éireann, serving as aTeachta Dála (TD) successively for theDublin South-West andDublin Mid-West constituencies from 1981 to 2011.[2]
She was Ireland's first femaleTánaiste from 1997 to 2006, and the first woman to lead a party in Dáil Éireann.[3][4]
Harney was born in Portiuncula Hospital,Ballinasloe,County Galway, in 1953.[5] Her parents, who lived in nearbyAhascragh, were both farmers, but shortly after her birth her family moved toNewcastle, County Dublin. She was educated at the Convent of Mercy,Inchicore, and Presentation Convent,Clondalkin, before studying atTrinity College Dublin.[6]
During her time in Trinity, she became the first female auditor (chair) of theCollege Historical Society.[7] In 1976, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Economic and Social Studies, and for a brief time was a secondary school teacher atCastleknock College in Dublin.
Harney came to the attention ofFianna Fáil leaderJack Lynch, and stood unsuccessfully as a Fianna Fáil candidate in the1977 general election. She was thenappointed toSeanad Éireann by Lynch who had becomeTaoiseach.[8] She was the youngest ever member of the Seanad when appointed, aged 24.[9]
In 1979, Harney had her first electoral success when she was elected toDublin County Council. Two years later she was elected to theDáil at the1981 general election forDublin South-West. She retained her seat at every election until her retirement in 2011, moving to the newDublin Mid-West constituency at the2002 general election when it was created from part of Dublin South-West.[10]
After the killers of gay manDeclan Flynn received suspended sentences, Harney challenged then Minister for JusticeMichael Noonan to seek the resignation of the judge.[11]
As a member of the so-calledGang of 22, she was expelled from the party after voting in favour of theAnglo-Irish Agreement in 1985.[12]
Harney went on to become a founder member of the Progressive Democrats withDesmond O'Malley andBobby Molloy in December 1985.
Following the1989 general election the Progressive Democrats entered into acoalition government with Fianna Fáil, led at the time byCharles Haughey. Harney was appointedMinister 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.[13]
Following the1997 general election and lengthy negotiations, the Progressive Democrats entered into coalition government with Fianna Fáil. Harney was appointed the first femaleTánaiste and first femaleMinister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Harney used her powers to initiate thirteen investigations into companies which tribunals had suggested might have breached company law.[14] After the2002 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.[14]
Harney was Ireland's representative to theEuropean Council of Ministers for theSoftware Patents Directive.[15] Because the council's first reading fell during the IrishPresidency of the European Council, she was chair of the meeting that discarded the amendments by theEuropean Parliament which confirmed the exclusion of software innovations from what constitutes patentable subject matter.[citation needed]
In December 2001, Harney controversially used an Air Corps aircraft[16] to travel toCounty Leitrim to open a friend'soff-licence inManorhamilton; 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.[17]
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.[18] Her policy of transferring private beds in public hospitals to privately operated hospitals also attracted criticism.[19]
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 theHealth Service Executive gave a figure of 363 people waiting on hospital trolleys for the same day).[20] In June 2006 theHealth 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.[21] 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'sNHS, 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 inTallaght. The allegation was strongly denied by the minister.[22] Sixty percent of respondents to aThe Irish Times/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.[23] 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.[24]
In July and August 2006, she issued three orders exempting two new community nursing units, to be built at St. Mary's Hospital in thePhoenix Park, from the usual legal requirement of planning permission, despite the Park being a designated and protected national monument. TheDepartment 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.[25]
The same year, in her capacity as Minister for Health, Mary Harney introduced risk equalisation into the Irish healthcare market. This was hugely resisted byBUPA. 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-ownedQuinn 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.[26][27]
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[28] but stated that it was a matter for her successor and the Taoiseach. She was succeeded by then-Justice MinisterMichael McDowell afterTom Parlon and backbencherLiz 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.[29]
Following the poor performance of the Progressive Democrats at the2007 general election, in which the party lost six of its eight seats including that of party leaderMichael 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 SenatorCiarán Cannon as party leader on 17 April 2008.[30]
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.[31]
On 15 January 2011, Harney tendered her resignation as Minister for Health and Children to TaoiseachBrian Cowen.[32] She also stated that she would not be contesting the2011 general election.[32]
Alongside her predecessor at the Department of Health,Micheál Martin, and officials at two prominent Dublin fertility clinics, she received a package which included a threatening letter on 29 February 2008.[33]
Councillor Louise Minihan, a member ofDublin City Council, threw red paint over Harney on 1 November 2010 as Harneyturned the sod on a new health centre beside the Cherry Orchard Hospital inBallyfermot.[34] Minihan was detained but later released.[35]
On 12 November 2010, Harney's ministerial car was pelted with eggs and cheese as she arrived inNenagh, with protesters referring to the "ongoing downgrading of the [local] hospital".[36]
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".[37]
In aRTÉ Radio 1 interview on 27 November 2008, Fianna Fáil TDMary 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 ownpersonal grooming, 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 leaderEamon Gilmore told his party conference that Harney should resign because of her performance as Minister for Health.[38]
In 2002, Harney settled a libel case withMagill magazine for around €25,000, and in 2004 she settled a case against theSunday Independent for €70,000. In May 2011, she received a €450,000 in compensation fromNewstalk radio for a slur made about her on live air by journalistNell McCafferty.[39]
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 businessmanKiran Mazumdar-Shaw, appointed Harney to the board ofBiocon, a Bangalore-based company employing 7,000 and expanding inMalaysia.[40]
On 17 April 2016, Harney intervened ingovernment 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 inBallybunion. 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".[41]
In 2019,Trinity College Dublin awarded Harney an honorary doctorate.[42]
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.[43]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| New office | Minister of State at the Department of the Environment 1989–1992 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment 1997–2004 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Tánaiste 1997–2006 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Health and Children 2004–2011 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Leader of the Progressive Democrats 1993–2006 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of the Progressive Democrats 2007–2008 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
