Tim O'Malley

Tim O'Malley ( _ga. Tadhg Ó Máille; born 3 July 1944), is an Irish Progressive Democrats politician. He is a former Teachta Dála (TD) for Limerick East and former Minister of State with special responsibility for Mental Health at the Department of Health & Children.

Tim O'Malley was born in Milltown, Ballysimon, County Limerick. He was educated at Crescent College Limerick and University College Dublin where he received a Bachelor of Science Pharmacy (BSc Pharm). Before entering electoral politics, O'Malley managed his own pharmacy in the Limerick city suburb of Dooradoyle. He served as president of the Irish Pharmaceutical Union, the representative body for over 1400 community pharmacies in Ireland. He was also awarded a fellowship by the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (the statutory regulator of pharmacists and pharmacies in Ireland) for services rendered to the profession. He later withdrew from management and ownership of the pharmacy business to concentrate fulltime on politics.

He first held political office in 1991 when he was elected to Limerick County Council. O'Malley was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 2002.

According to claims made on the Progressive Democrats website, O'Malley has campaigned tirelessly on health issues since qualifying as a pharmacist. In 2001, he was appointed Health Spokesperson for the Progressive Democrats, and successfully spearheaded his party's campaign to have a Treatment Purchase Fund included in the Government Health Strategy, as a means of reducing public patient waiting lists in Irish hospitals.

O'Malley comes from a family with a strong political pedigree in Limerick. He is a cousin of the former Progressive Democrats TD for Limerick East and Party founder, Desmond O'Malley, and is also a cousin of the late Donogh O'Malley, TD, former Education Minister. Two other cousins, Fiona O'Malley and Patrick O'Malley, were also Progressive Democrat TDs.

In November 2006, during an interview on the radio station Newstalk, he referred to gay people as not being of a "normal disposition". Around the same time, he was quoted in a medical journal as saying severe depression was not a "real illness".

In December of that year he came under increasing pressure from opposition TDs to resign following a "Prime Time Investigates" television programme broadcast on RTÉ One which criticised the lack of mental health services available for Irish children. He implied in the programme that long waiting lists for psychiatric services were in some cases engineered by psychiatrists themselves in search of a feeling of power.

He lost his seat in the 2007 general election.

ee also

*Families in the Oireachtas

External links

* [http://www.progressivedemocrats.ie/our_people/member/4/ Tim O'Malley's profile on the Progressive Democrat party website]
* [http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/0412/pds.html O'Malley calls for end to health board system]
* [http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/1205/health.html O'Malley claims people like to have hospital waiting lists]

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