Dara Murphy

Dara Murphy (born 2 December 1969) is a former Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Minister of State for European Affairs and Data Protection 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]

Dara Murphy
Minister of State for European Affairs and Data Protection
In office 14 July 2014 – 20 June 2017
Taoiseach	Enda Kenny
Preceded by	Paschal Donohoe
Succeeded by	Helen McEntee
Lord Mayor of Cork
In office 9 June 2009 – 11 June 2010
Preceded by	Brian Bermingham
Succeeded by	Michael O'Connell
Teachta Dála
In office February 2011 – 3 December 2019
Constituency	Cork North-Central
Personal details
Born	2 December 1969 Glanmire, County Cork, Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Political party	Fine Gael
Spouse(s)	Tanya Murphy (m. 1999)
Children	3
Alma mater	University College Cork

He announced his resignation 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. In accordance with dual mandate restrictions, he vacated his council seat in 2011 after winning election to the Dáil .

On 15 July 2014, Murphy was appointed as Minister of State with responsibility for data protection and European Affairs and at the Departments of the Taoiseach and Foreign Affairs and Trade respectively.[7] He was dropped from the 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.[8]

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.[9] However, this was overshadowed by the controversy surrounding the expenses scandal, which saw him collect his Dáil Éireann expenses.[10][11] 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.[12]

He resigned as a TD on 3 December 2019, which was announced in the Dáil the following day.[13][14][15]

References

1. "Dara Murphy". Oireachtas Members Database. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
2. "Meet your 76 new TDs". RTÉ.ie. 9 March 2009. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
3. English, Eoin (1 November 2015). "Minister Dara Murphy finishes UCC arts degree". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
4. Ryan, Philip Twitter (18 July 2014). "New junior minister was forced to pay €35,000 in tax bills to Revenue". Irish Independent. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
5. "Written Answers. - Ministerial Appointments". Dáil Éireann debates. 22 January 1997. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
6. "Dara Murphy". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
7. "Simon Harris among new Ministers of State". RTÉ News. 15 July 2014.
8. Sheehy, Paschal (19 May 2018). "Fine Gael TD Dara Murphy will not defend seat". RTÉ News. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
9. "Fine Gael TD to resign from Dáil to take up European Commission role". Irish Independent. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
10. 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. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
11. Finn, Christina (3 December 2019). "Taoiseach says he's spoken to TD Dara Murphy about the controversy over his Dáil expenses". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
12. "Dara Murphy insists he complied with attendance rules". The Irish Times. 30 November 2019.
13. "Statement from Dara Murphy". Fine Gael. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
14. O'Connell, Hugh (4 December 2019). "Fine Gael TD Dara Murphy formally resigns from the Dáil". Irish Independent. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
15. "Dáil Éireann debate - Wednesday 4 December 2019: Resignation of Member". Houses of the Oireachtas. Retrieved 9 December 2019.