Dara Murphy
Murphy in 2017
Minister of State
2014–2017European Affairs and Data Protection
2014–2017Justice and Equality
2014–2017Foreign Affairs and Trade
Teachta Dála
In office
February 2011 – 3 December 2019
ConstituencyCork North-Central
Personal details
Born (1969-12-02) 2 December 1969
Glanmire, County Cork, Ireland
Political partyFine Gael
Spouse
Tanya Murphy
​
(m. 1999)​
Children3
Alma materUniversity College Cork

Dara Murphy (born 2 December 1969) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as a Minister of State from 2014 to 2017 and Lord Mayor of Cork from 2009 to 2010. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cork North-Central constituency from 2011 to 2019.[1]

He resigned as a TD in December 2019 in the wake of a controversy about his lack of attendance in Dáil Éireann, in order to take a full-time position in the administration of the European Union.

Early and personal life

Murphy is from Mayfield, Cork.[2] After attending Christian Brothers College,[2] he studied economics at University College Cork from 1988, but failed his final exams; he finally graduated in 2015 after completing the necessary modules remotely.[3] He started several catering businesses, the first while still in college; these prospered until the 2008 recession, when they folded, leaving him with tax debts which were settled in subsequent years.[4]

Political career

Murphy was appointed to the National Economic and Social Council by the then Taoiseach John Bruton in October 1996, serving until the end of 1997.[5] He was elected to Cork City Council in 2004 and 2009, serving as Deputy Lord Mayor from 2005 to 2006 and Lord Mayor from 2009 to 2010.[6] He also served as the first Chair of the Cork Joint Policing Committee. He was elected to the Dáil for Cork North-Central at the 2011 general election, vacating his seat in Cork City Council.

On 15 July 2014, on the nomination of Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Murphy was appointed by the Fine Gael–Labour coalition government as Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach, at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and at the Department of Justice and Equality, with special responsibility as Minister of State for European Affairs and for data protection.[7][8][9] On 19 May 2016, on the nomination of Taoiseach Enda Kenny, he was appointed by the Fine Gael–Independent minority government to the same positions, with additional responsibility for the EU Digital Single Market,[10][11] He was not appointed to ministerial position by Leo Varadkar when he became Taoiseach in June 2017.

In October 2017, Murphy was appointed Campaign Director for the European People's Party in the 2019 European Parliament election.

In May 2018, Murphy announced that he intended to retire from Dáil Éireann at the next general election.[12]

In November 2019, Murphy revealed that he was resigning as a TD at the end of 2019 to take up a senior position in the European Commission.[13] However, this was overshadowed by the controversy surrounding the expenses scandal, which saw him collect his Dáil Éireann expenses.[14][15] From October 2017, Murphy was mainly based in Brussels where he worked with the European People's Party. During this period he drew his full Dáil salary of €94,500 and his full parliamentary standard allowances of €51,600 each year. Murphy had the lowest attendance rate in the Dáil on sitting days by a considerable margin during 2018 and 2019; attending on 42 days out of 104 in 2018, and 24 out of 70 until the end of September 2019.[16]

Murphy resigned as a TD on 3 December 2019.[17][18][19]

Later career

In 2021, Murphy joined Rasmussen Global as a senior adviser.[20]

References

  1. ↑ "Dara Murphy". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 8 November 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
  2. 1 2 "Meet your 76 new TDs". RTÉ.ie. 9 March 2009. Archived from the original on 23 February 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  3. ↑ English, Eoin (1 November 2015). "Minister Dara Murphy finishes UCC arts degree". Irish Examiner. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  4. ↑ Ryan, Philip (18 July 2014). "New junior minister was forced to pay €35,000 in tax bills to Revenue". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  5. ↑ "Written Answers. - Ministerial Appointments – Dáil Éireann (27th Dáil)". Oireachtas. 22 January 1997. Archived from the original on 4 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  6. ↑ "Dara Murphy". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 10 March 2011. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
  7. ↑ "Appointment of Ministers of State" (PDF). Iris Oifigiúil. 2014 (62): 1172–1173. 5 August 2014. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 November 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  8. ↑ Justice and Equality (Delegation of Ministerial Functions) (No. 2) Order 2015 (S.I. No. 265 of 2015). Signed on 23 June 2015. Statutory Instrument of the Government of Ireland. Retrieved from Irish Statute Book on 2 April 2021.
  9. ↑ "Simon Harris among new Ministers of State". RTÉ News. 15 July 2014. Archived from the original on 20 July 2014. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  10. ↑ "Appointment of Ministers of State" (PDF). Iris Oifigiúil. 2016 (47): 804–806. 10 June 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 November 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  11. ↑ Justice and Equality (Delegation of Ministerial Functions) Order 2016 (S.I. No. 388 of 2016). Signed on 19 July 2016. Statutory Instrument of the Government of Ireland. Retrieved from Irish Statute Book on 26 March 2021.
  12. ↑ Sheehy, Paschal (19 May 2018). "Fine Gael TD Dara Murphy will not defend seat". RTÉ News. Archived from the original on 20 May 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  13. ↑ "Fine Gael TD to resign from Dáil to take up European Commission role". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 27 November 2019. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  14. ↑ McGee, Harry (29 November 2019). "FG's Dara Murphy: based in Brussels for two years but claiming €4,300 monthly Dáil allowance". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 30 November 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  15. ↑ Finn, Christina (3 December 2019). "Taoiseach says he's spoken to TD Dara Murphy about the controversy over his Dáil expenses". TheJournal.ie. Archived from the original on 4 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  16. ↑ "Dara Murphy insists he complied with attendance rules". The Irish Times. 30 November 2019. Archived from the original on 1 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  17. ↑ "Statement from Dara Murphy". Fine Gael. 4 December 2019. Archived from the original on 4 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  18. ↑ O'Connell, Hugh (4 December 2019). "Fine Gael TD Dara Murphy formally resigns from the Dáil". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 4 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  19. ↑ "Resignation of Member – Dáil Éireann (32nd Dáil)". Houses of the Oireachtas. 4 December 2019. Archived from the original on 9 December 2019. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  20. ↑ Bartoloni, Mia (18 June 2021). "Movers & Shakers". The Parliament Magazine. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
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