Mary Butler (politician)

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Mary Butler
TD
Mary Butler (official portrait) 2020 (cropped).jpg
Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People
Assumed office
1 July 2020
TaoiseachMicheál Martin
Preceded byJim Daly
Chair of the Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
In office
4 April 2016 – 1 July 2020
Preceded byDamien English
Succeeded byMaurice Quinlivan
Teachta Dála
Assumed office
February 2016
ConstituencyWaterford
Personal details
Born (1966-09-29) 29 September 1966 (age 55)
Waterford, Ireland
NationalityIrish
Political partyFianna Fáil
Spouse(s)Michael Butler (m. 1988)
Children3
Alma materWaterford Institute of Technology
Constituency office, Waterford

Mary Butler (born 29 September 1966) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who has served as Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People since July 2020. She has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Waterford constituency since 2016. She previously served as Chair of the Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation from 2016 to 2020.[1][2]

Political career[]

She was the Fianna Fáil junior Spokesperson for Older People and Chair of Oireachtas Cross Party group on Dementia. She had been a member of Waterford City and County Council from 2014 to 2016,[3] before her election to the Dáil in 2016.

Butler was opposed to the legalisation of abortion in Ireland. She called for a No vote in the 2018 referendum on Abortion, and co-organised an event calling for a No vote.[4]

Butler put forward a bill in 2018 with the aim of banning tattoos and intimate piercings for people under the age of eighteen, however this bill lapsed with the dissolution of the Dáil.[5][6]

Canvassing controversy[]

Butler had former Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Kenneally involved in canvassing for her ahead of the 2016 general election, at which she was first elected to Dáil Éireann.[7] Bill Kenneally, a cousin of Kenneally's, was convicted of 1980s sexual abuse of boys, and Kenneally had previously acknowledged that he had been aware of his cousin's crimes before his sentencing to 14 years imprisonment.[8] Butler received criticism for Kenneally's involvement in her 2016 campaign.[7] However, four years later, she again had Keneally canvass for her ahead of the 2020 general election.[7] Kenneally's canvassing for Mary Butler in 2020 became public knowledge when it emerged that he had visited the homes of some of those who had been abused to seek their votes.[7]

It also emerged that Butler was renting her constituency office from Kenneally, and when it did so, she stated in an interview that she would move elsewhere and did so in early 2020.[7]

Personal life[]

Butler is married to Michael and has three children.[9]

References[]

  1. ^ "Mary Butler". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 21 October 2020. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  2. ^ "Election 2016: Mary Butler". RTÉ. 27 February 2016. Archived from the original on 1 March 2016. Retrieved 27 February 2016.
  3. ^ "Mary Butler". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 25 February 2019. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
  4. ^ "Cross-party group of politicians calls for No vote in referendum". The Irish Times. 16 May 2018. Archived from the original on 7 June 2021. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  5. ^ McMorrow, Conor (15 November 2018). "Bill would ban intimate piercings for under 18s". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ^ Oireachtas, Houses of the (15 November 2018). "Regulation of Intimate Piercing and Tattooing Bill 2018 – No. 125 of 2018 – Houses of the Oireachtas". www.oireachtas.ie. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d e Parker, Christy (26 February 2020). "Mary Butler apologises for 'huge error of judgment'". Irish Examiner. Archived from the original on 26 February 2020. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  8. ^ Tiernan, Damien (25 September 2016). "Former TD 'was told cousin abused boys but he said nothing'". Sunday Independent. Archived from the original on 27 February 2020. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  9. ^ Cullen, Paul. "Profile: Mary Butler (FF)". The Irish Times. Retrieved 4 November 2021.

External links[]

Oireachtas
Preceded by Teachta Dála for Waterford
2016–present
With: David Cullinane
John Deasy
John Halligan 		Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People
2020–present 		Incumbent
Retrieved from ""