Joan Burton

Joan Burton TD
Tánaiste
In office 4 July 2014 – 6 May 2016
Taoiseach	Enda Kenny
Preceded by	Eamon Gilmore
Succeeded by	Frances Fitzgerald
Leader of the Labour Party
In office 4 July 2014 – 20 May 2016
Deputy	Alan Kelly
Preceded by	Eamon Gilmore
Succeeded by	Brendan Howlin
Minister for Social Protection
In office 9 March 2011 – 6 May 2016
Taoiseach	Enda Kenny
Preceded by	Éamon Ó Cuív
Succeeded by	Leo Varadkar
Deputy Leader of the Labour Party
In office 4 October 2007 – 4 July 2014
Leader	Eamon Gilmore
Preceded by	Liz McManus
Succeeded by	Alan Kelly
Minister of State for Overseas Development Aid and Human Rights
In office 20 December 1994 – 26 June 1997
Taoiseach	John Bruton
Preceded by	Tom Kitt
Succeeded by	Liz O'Donnell
Minister of State at the Department of Social Welfare
In office 14 January 1993 – 15 December 1994
Taoiseach	Albert Reynolds
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Teachta Dála
Incumbent
Assumed office May 2002
In office November 1992 – June 1997
Constituency	Dublin West
Personal details
Born	(1949-02-01) 1 February 1949 Stoneybatter, Dublin, Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Political party	Labour Party
Spouse(s)	Pat Carroll
Children	1
Alma mater	University College Dublin
Website	Official website

Joan Burton (born 1 February 1949) is an Irish politician who was leader of the Labour Party from 2014 to 2016. She is a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin West constituency.^[1]

Burton was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1992 general election. From 1995 to 1997 she was Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs. She lost her seat at the 1997 general election but was re-elected to the Dáil at the 2002 general election.^[2] She was deputy leader of the Labour Party under Eamon Gilmore between 2007 and 2014. She was Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) from 2014 to 2016 and Minister for Social Protection from 2011 to 2016. She resigned as Labour Party leader in May 2016, following heavy losses by the party in the 2016 general election.^[3]

Early life

Burton is a native of the Stoneybatter area of Dublin. She was adopted by the Burtons as a baby and brought up in Inchicore. Her adoptive father worked in the local iron foundry. She was educated at St. Gabriel's NS, Cowper Street and St. Joseph Sisters of Charity Secondary School, Stanhope Street and University College Dublin (UCD), where she graduated with a degree in commerce. She is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. She has worked as a lecturer in Accountancy in the Dublin Institute of Technology and the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Political career

Early years: 1989–1997

Burton first stood for election at the 1989 general election, when she stood as one of two Labour candidates in the Dublin Central constituency, failing to get elected.^[4] At the local elections in 1991, she was elected to Dublin County Council for the Mulhuddart electoral area.^[4]

Burton was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1992 general election, representing Dublin West in the 27th Dáil.^[4] She was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Social Welfare in the Fianna Fáil–Labour Party coalition that was formed after that election. With the breakdown of that coalition and the establishment of a Rainbow Coalition between the Labour Party, Fine Gael and Democratic Left in early 1995, she became Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, a position she held until the coalition's defeat at the 1997 general election.^[4]

Loss of seat and re-election: 1997–2007

She lost her seat at the 1997 general election to Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party. Burton was re-elected to Fingal County Council in the 1999 local elections, on this occasion winning a seat in the Castleknock electoral area.^[4] She was re-elected to the Dáil for Dublin West at the 2002 general election.^[4] She was then appointed the spokesperson on Finance. She was a candidate for the deputy leadership of the party in 2002, obtaining 24% of the first preference vote, but was unsuccessful.

Labour Deputy Leadership: 2007–2014

Burton became deputy leader of the Labour Party in September 2007. She was re-elected to represent Dublin West at the 2011 general election, topping the poll on the 1st count with 9,627 votes,^[5] and was the first TD in the country to be elected to the 31st Dáil.^[6]

Labour Leadership: 2014–2016

Labour polled badly at the 2014 local and European elections, leading to the resignation of Eamon Gilmore as leader. Burton announced her candidacy for the leadership to replace him. On 4 July 2014 she won the leadership election, defeating Alex White by 78% to 22%.^[7] The Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, appointed her as Tánaiste on the same day. Upon her election she said that the Labour Party "would focus on social repair, and govern more with the heart".^[7] She became the first woman to lead the Labour Party.

On 11 July Burton announced the Labour Party cabinet ministers, with party deputy leader Alan Kelly TD appointed as Minister for the Environment, Alex White TD as Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Jan O'Sullivan TD as Minister for Education & Skills and Gerald Nash TD as Minister of State at Cabinet for Business and Employment. Brendan Howlin TD remained Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. Burton also remained in her ministry at the Department of Social Protection.

At the Women In Media conference that took place in April 2016 following elections and during negotiations to form a governing coalition, Burton discussed how women were excluded from the government negotiation process. She criticized what she called the misogyny and abuse female politicians faced during the election, and as well as the "vulgar, crude, and demeaning" Late Late Show broadcast during the election that offered Freudian interpretations of politicians' body language.^[8]

Labour returned to opposition following the 2016 general election, greatly reduced in numbers. Burton remained as Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection in an acting capacity during prolonged talks on government formation, earning €32,943 in that time.^[9] On 6 May 2016 Enda Kenny announced in the Dáil that Frances Fitzgerald would be the new Tánaiste, while Burton's constituency rival Leo Varadkar took her old job in the Department of Social Protection.

On 10 May 2016 she announced her resignation as Labour Party leader, which took effect on 20 May when her replacement Brendan Howlin was chosen unopposed.^[10][11]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joan Burton.

• Official website
• Joan Burton's page on the Labour Party website