Máire Geoghegan-Quinn (born 5 September 1950) is an Irish politician. She is the newly designated European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science. She previously served as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for the Galway West constituency from 1975 to 1997.^[1] She served as Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications (1992–1993) and as Minister for Justice (1993–94).

[edit] Early and personal life

Máire Geoghegan was born in Carna, County Galway in September 1950. She was educated at Coláiste Muire, Tourmakeady, in County Mayo and at Carysfort College in Blackrock from where she qualified as a teacher. She is married to John Quinn, with whom she has two children.

In 1996, she wrote "The Green Diamond", a novel about four young women sharing a house in Dublin in the 1960s.

Geoghegan-Quinn lives in Luxembourg.

[edit] Political career

Her father, Johnny Geoghegan, was Fianna Fáil TD for Galway West from 1954 until his death in 1975. His daughter successfully contested the subsequent by-election.^[2] From 1977 and 1979 she worked as Parliamentary Secretary (Junior Minister) at the Department of Industry, Commerce and Energy. She served as a member of Galway City Council from 1985–91.

Geoghegan-Quinn supported Charles Haughey in the 1979 Fianna Fáil leadership election, she was subsequently appointed to the cabinet post of Minister for the Gaeltacht. Thus, she became the first woman to hold an Irish cabinet post since the foundation of the state in 1922, although Countess Markiewicz was Minister for Labour in 1919, in the First Dáil. In 1981 Labour Party's Eileen Desmond became the next woman to hold a cabinet post.

In 1982 she was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Education. Her tenure was short, because the 23rd Dáil lasted only 279 days, and a Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition was elected at the November 1982 general election.

When Fianna Fáil returned to power after the 1987 general election, Geoghegan-Quinn became Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach. She resigned in 1991 in opposition to Charles Haughey's leadership of the party. The following year Albert Reynolds, whom she now backed for the leadership, became Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader. Geoghegan-Quinn was appointed Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications for her loyalty to Reynolds. In 1993 she became Minister for Justice, introducing substantial law reform legislation, including the decriminalisation of homosexuality.

Widely tipped to be the first female Taoiseach, she announced that she would challenge Bertie Ahern for the position when Reynolds retired. However on the day of the vote she withdrew from the contest. At the 1997 general election she retired from politics completely, citing privacy issues, after details about her son's school expulsion appeared in the newpapers. She became a non-executive director of Aer Lingus, a member of the Board of the Declan Ganley owned Ganley Group and a journalist, writing a column for The Irish Times.

In 1999 she was appointed to the European Court of Auditors replacing former TD Barry Desmond. She was appointed for a second term at the Court of Auditors in March 2006.

She was nominated by the Taoiseach Brian Cowen to become Ireland's European Commissioner in November 2009^[3] and was subsequently allocated the Research, Innovation and Science portfolio.^[4] She is Ireland's first female Commissioner.

[edit] References