Eileen Desmond

Template:Short description Template:Use Hiberno-English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox officeholder Eileen Christine Desmond (Template:Nee; 29 December 1932 – 6 January 2005) was an Irish Labour Party politician who served as Minister for Health and Minister for Social Welfare from 1981 to 1982. She was a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1965 to 1969 and 1973 to 1987. She also served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Munster constituency from 1979 to 1981 and as a Senator for the Industrial and Commercial Panel from 1969 to 1973.<ref name=oireachtas_db>Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life

She was born in Kinsale, County Cork, her father was a postman and part-time fisherman, who went blind when she was aged eleven,<ref name=dib/> her mother was the local seamstress. She was educated locally at the Convent of Mercy in Kinsale, where she was one of only two girls in her class to sit the Leaving Certificate examination.<ref name=dib>Template:Cite web</ref> Before entering politics she worked as a civil servant with the Department of Posts and Telegraphs.<ref name=dib/> She married Dan Desmond in 1955, a Labour TD for Cork from 1948 to 1964, and they had two daughters.<ref name=dib/>

Politics

Desmond was elected to Dáil Éireann in a by-election on 10 March 1965, caused by the death of her husband Dan Desmond.<ref name=elecs_irl>Template:Cite web</ref> Her victory in the Cork Mid constituency led Taoiseach Seán Lemass to dissolve the 17th Dáil, before she could assume her seat, and call a general election.<ref name=dib/> She was elected for the second time in a year, but lost her seat at the 1969 general election. However, Desmond was then elected to the 12th Seanad on the Industrial and Commercial Panel, where she served until her re-election to the 20th Dáil following the 1973 general election. She supported the unsuccessful Contraceptives Bill in 1974.<ref name=dib/>

She was elected to the European Parliament at the 1979 European Parliament election for the Munster constituency. However, her time in Europe was short-lived, as she returned to domestic politics when she was offered a position as Minister and the chance to impact national legislation. At the 1981 general election she switched her constituency to Cork South-Central. A Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition came to power and Desmond was appointed Minister for Health and for Social Welfare.

Desmond was the third woman to be appointed to cabinet since the foundation of the state in 1922, the first in a Fine Gael-Labour Party cabinet, and the first female officeholder of the health and social welfare ministries. Desmond was the only woman in that short-lived coalition Cabinet. She created the National Combat Poverty Agency, which addressed inequality. She achieved a 25% increase in social welfare allowance, a level never achieved before. However, the budget was defeated on 27 January 1982, leading to the dissolution of the 22nd Dáil, so the increases never came into effect.<ref name=dib/>

Desmond left politics in 1987 for health reasons but stood unsuccessfully in the 1989 European Parliament election after her health improved. She died in 2005.<ref name=dib/>

External links

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