About Seán Haughey

Having always lived on Dublin’s northside, he attended St. Paul’s College in Raheny before completing a B.A. degree in Economics and Politics in Trinity College Dublin.

He was first elected for the Artane Electoral Area as a City Councillor (1985 – 2003) and later to Seanad Eireann, (1987 – 1992) before entering Dáil Eireann in 1992, on his third attempt. He was a Member of the Dáil for Dublin North Central until 2011.  

He represented Fianna Fail nationwide as National Chairman of Ógra Fianna Fáil and as a member of the National Executive of the Party.

He has always taken an active interest in local affairs and served on various local bodies including the boards of Beaumont Hospital, the Orthopaedic Hospital in Clontarf, St. Vincent’s Hospital in Fairview and the Northside Partnership Limited. He is fully committed to the preservation of Dublin Bay as an amenity for all.

As the youngest ever Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1989/1990 he was instrumental in initiating proposals for the re-development of Temple Bar as a cultural quarter and the promotion of the scheme to pedestrianise City Centre streets.

He has consistently opposed any liberalisation of the laws in relation to gaming arcades and resort casinos.

As a TD for Dublin North Central Seán lobbied for and delivered significant investment and facilities for his constituency in the areas of education, health, transport, parks, sport and social, cultural and community activities.

Between 2002-2004 he was Vice-Chairman of the Joint Committee on European Affairs. He was among the first Irish parliamentarians to raise concerns about the Turkish application for membership of the European Union.

He is a strong supporter of Ireland's traditional policy of miltary neutrality.

Between 2004 – 2006 he was Chairman of the Joint Committee on Environment and Local Government and in that capacity voiced his opposition to the proposed M3 Motorway through Tara. Under his chairmanship the Committee published a comprehensive report on the recycling of household waste in Ireland.

He was also instrumental in the introduction of a landmark amendment to the new Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) legislation which outlawed any future development of nuclear installations in Ireland.

He was a Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills from 2006-2011 and had special responsibility for Lifelong Learning, Educational Disadvantage and School Transport.

He coordinated and advanced the implementation of the National Skills Strategy so that comprehensive upskilling and re-skilling opportunities were available for the workforce, including the unemployed, to ensure that we had a well-educated and highly skilled population, contributing to a competitive, innovation-driven, knowledge based, and inclusive economy.

He also commenced an evaluation of the DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) Programme with a view to preparing a new framework to tackle the problem of disadvantage in our schools.

Finally, in January 2009 he initiated the first comprehensive value-for-money review of the School Transport Scheme since the 1960s. This was published in March 2011 and as a result of this major reforms to the Scheme were announced in the 2011 Budget.

Séan is the son of former Taoiseach Charles Haughey and a grandson of former Taoiseach Seán Lemass.