Breeda Moynihan-Cronin

Breeda Moynihan-Cronin (née Moynihan) (born 31 March 1953) is an Irish Labour Party politician. She was a Teachta Dála (TD) for Kerry South from 1992 until 2007.

She was born in County Kerry and was educated at St. Brigid's Secondary School, Killarney, Sion Hill College, Dublin and Skerry's College, Cork. She worked as a bank official before becoming involved in politics in 1991 when she was elected to Kerry County Council. She was first elected to Dáil Éireann in the 1992 general election as a TD for Kerry South and was re-elected at every election until 2007. She succeeded her father, Michael Moynihan, who was a TD for a number of years for the same constituency.

Since being elected she has held a number of Front Bench positions in the Labour Party, including, spokesperson on Justice, Equality & Law Reform (1997–1998), spokesperson on Social, Community and Family Affairs (1998–1999), spokesperson on Tourism & Recreation (1999–2002), spokesperson on Social, Community and Family Affairs (2002–2003), and spokesperson on Equality & Law Reform (2003–2007). Moynihan Cronin is also the current Chairperson of the Labour Party.

On 11 October 2005, she announced that she would not stand for re-election at the next general election due to ill-health. Her decision to retire presented considerable difficulties for the Labour Party to retain her seat, as the party performed poorly at the local elections in 2004, failing to elect any councillors within the constituency. However, on 28 October 2006, she announced that she would now stand in the forthcoming general election, having overcome her health difficulties [http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/1028/moynihancroninb.html] but failed to retain her seat.

References

*Oireachtas-database