Theresa Ahearn
Fine Gael
Tipperary' South
IMPECCABLE Fine Gael credentials. Her mother and father were in the Blueshirts and she was involved in Fine Gael at local level before entering the Dail in 1989 on her first attempt. Now a Fine Gael backbencher, she is recognised as a conservative from a conservative constituency. She was in an extraordinary situation in the recent Hepatitis C debate in the Dail since she herself had received AntiD treatment and had to undergo much stress. She has chaired the Oireachtas Women's Affairs Committee and acted as Fine Gael spokeswoman on women's affairs when her party was in opposition.
Niamh Bhreathnach
Labour
Duo Laoghaire
THOUGH a member of the Labour Party for aeons, her elevation to Education Minister on her first day in the Dail came as a shock to many. She had, of course, been close to the leadership and her loyalty to Dick Spring was well rewarded. Her early days as Minister brought controversy on her head with the appointment of her daughter, Cliodhna, as her personal secretary at the Department. A remedial teacher by profession, she's a hard worker and is not part of the Dail bar set. The abolition of third level fees, large increases in education spending, and the provision of more resources for disadvantaged children, rank as her main achievements.
Joan Burton
Labour
Dublin West
AN accountant and college lecturer she is one of the most vocal and frequently heard junior Ministers on the national airwaves. She is regarded by the party leadership as a good and competent performer, certainty of senior Ministerial material" at some future stage in office, she doffed her Laura Ashley florals for sharper suits.
Got into some embarrassment in the early days when she used the Government jet to fly home from Europe with some members of her entourage. She is not noted for her ability to listen to opponents and, if regarded as intense, is very bright with instincts often stronger than her leader's.
Mary Coughlan
Fianna Fail
Donegal South West
THOUGH 10 years a member of the Dail, she is still one of the youngest deputies in the House. Her youthfulness does not, however, mean she's a radical and she's viewed as a conservative and politically cautious. Popular with her parliamentary party, she is seen as junior ministerial material at a later date.
Sile de Valera
Fianna Fail
Clure
VERY popular with Bertie Ahern. They both share the same easy manner with people and he admires her work rate. She will have produced five policy documents and two Bills by the time the election is over. Popular within the party, she topped the poll for the role of vice president of FF.
Mellow now compared with the early days, she was first elected in 1977 and there was a time when she caused her leaders blushes with calls for a British withdrawal. She visited Bobby Sands in prison and criticised Margaret Thatcher's handling of the H Block hunger strikes.
Avril Doyle
Fine Gael
Wexford
GILT edged in her presentation, she is outstandingly county" in style. In the old days, when Fine Gael was adrift on a sea of political uncertainty, she was suggested as a compromise candidate for the leadership. "Good Lord", said one member, "she'd just be John Bruton on horseback."
A member of the well known Fine Gael Belton family and a good public speaker, she puts the fear of God into many of her male colleagues. She met representatives of the Orange Order earlier this year to discuss their involvement in next year's commemoration of the 1798 rebellion and has been deeply involved in Famine remembrance activities. Driving the Stategic Management Initiative which is designed to ensure the Civil Service serves the public well - has been her major role as a Junior Minister.
Eithne Fitzgerald
Labour
Dublin South
EARNEST and conscientious with a strong hint of the Head Girl about her, Eithne Fitzgerald can never be accused of being an election baby kisser. She's been heartfelt and serious about her work as Minister of State at the Tanaiste's Department.
Elected for the first time to the Dail in 1992 on the torrent of support that swept Labour to power, she pulled in the highest first preference vote - 17,000 - in the country and luxuriates in the knowledge that she could lose 10,000 votes on June 6th and still be elected.
The subject of much derisory comment - particularly from within Fianna Fail and Fine Gael - over her zeal in drafting the Ethics in Government Bill, she does not court favour, even at Labour leadership level. Setting ethical guidelines for politicians will probably rank as one of the most important pieces of legislation she pushed through in the past five years, along with the Freedom of Information Bill.
Frances Fitzgerald
Fine Gael
Dublin South East
ONE of the most sought after potential candidates prior to the 1992 election. Fianna Fail appointed her to the Health Promotion Council shortly before she agreed to run for Fine Gael. Several parties believed that, as chairwoman of the Council for the Status of Women she could, Pied Piper like, bring Mna na hEireann flocking to vote for them.
Initially one of John Bruton's less ardent admirers, they are now said to be "of like mind on many issues". Seen in some Fine Gael quarters as a potential presidential candidate for the party if it fails to return to government. She is likely to be a junior Minister in the next administration.
Mary Flaherty
Fine Gael
Dublin North West
WITH Maire Geoghegan Quinn gone, she would be the longest serving woman TD in Leinster House. Her fortunes in the party under John Bruton have ebbed compared with the heady early days as a TD when Garret FitzGerald appointed her Minister of State with responsibility for poverty. According to her election literature, she is "an independent voice" and has crossed swords with the party hierarchy on a number of issues, including her opposition to a Fine Gael amendment to increase the minimum age from 17 to 18 in the Homosexuality Bill. Has concerned herself with the welfare of Irish prisoners in Britain and visited some of them.
Mildred Fox
Independent
Wicklow
A SLIP of a girl to emerge triumphant on a glorious summer's day in 1995 to outdo the major political parties and hold her father's seat. As a backbench independent TD and new to the whole political system, she has not flexed her elbows sufficiently to allow herself more speaking time in the Dail. However, the complex workings and procedures of the Dail may have overwhelmed her. She is young and energetic and will have a fight on her hands from the big party machines she overcame in the by election. However, if she survives, time is on her side.
Maire Geoghegan Quinn
Fianna Fail
Galway West (retiring)
ONE of the leading ladies of Irish politics, her announcement that she would not be seeking reelection came like a bolt from the blue. The media, she claimed, had pushed too far into her family life. Since then she has been doing plenty of media work herself. The first woman member of Cabinet since the Treaty, her career took her through several senior Ministries but ambitions to become party leader foundered under the huge support for Bertie Ahern. A formidable Dail performer, she was fast on her feet and debated particularly well on the recent Hepatitis C scandal. Her absence from the front bench will be difficult to fill.
Mary Harney
Progressive Democrats
Dublin South West
AMBITIOUS and hard headed about politics, it is crucial for her and her party that she lead the way back into Government after five years on the Opposition benches. A decade out of office would be devastating for her and the PDs.
Her highest political calling to date has been Minister of State at the Department of the Environment when she rid Dublin of smoky coal and smog and set up the Environment Protection Agency but now she is potentially the next Tanaiste, the "other Mary" in government.
The first woman leader of a Dail party, she's a pragmatist rather than an ideologue. Espousing the notion of self reliance and minimum State intervention in business, she has been accused of aping Thatcher. She, however, says that Tony Blair is the closest equivalent of PD politics in practice. Politics is her life. Her last 20 years have been devoted to this trade. Now she's is on the brink of realising her ultimate objective to lead the PDs into government.
Cecilia Keaveney
Fianna Fail
Donegal North East
WON the by election caused by the death of Neil Blaney and exudes a tremendous zest for life and politics. Her contributions to the Dail have largely concerned the marine, as well as regional under development.
Helen Keogh
Progressive Democrats
Dun Laoghaire
INVOLVED with the PDs since their foundation in 1985, she graduated from being a backroom worker in 1992 to a TD in the country's most liberal and volatile constituency. Reputed to detest "personality politics", she suffers from belonging to a party of heavy hitters such as Harney, Michael McDowell and Des O'Malley. Education spokeswoman, she was doggedly opposed to the Education Bill - particularly the proposed Regional Education Boards, which she described as an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy when some schools do not have adequate heating or learning materials.
Kathleen Lynch
Democratic Left
Cork North Central
LEFT school at 16 and worked in the clothing industry. As her four children grew older she became active in politics, cutting her teeth in the local elections of 1985. Against all the odds, she won the Dail by election in Cork NorthCentral in November 1994. The day the result was announced, Labour walked out of Cabinet and the Fianna Fail Labour government fell shortly afterwards. For a time it looked as if she might be the shortest serving TD in the history of the State. One of the party's two backbenchers, she kicked up murder over the Government's Employment Equality Bill, which has just been found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Liz McManus
Democratic Left
Wicklow
ELEGANT in style, she's reputed to be as tough as old Gucci leather. Her obvious middle class patina has, in its way, helped Democratic Left make the quantum leap from the extreme left fringe to the middle of Government.
As Minister with responsibility for Housing and Urban Renewal, she can boast the highest number of housing completions ever last year. She introduced and pushed through legislation to deal with social problems in local authority estates, particularly drugs. Within the party, she surprised everyone by coming second choice for leadership after De Rossa in a poll conducted at the party's recent annual general conference. An architect by profession and a novelist, she recently turned 50, and is certainly the most glamorous granny in Leinster House.
Breeda Moynihan Cronin
Labour
Kerry South
CARRIED on the well worn tradition of the Irish political system by taking over her father's Dail seat when he stepped out of politics. She knows all the nuances of politics in Kerry, having served on the county council and worked as a personal assistant to her father. Has had to spend some time away from the Dail because of illness. Her profile has been low key but a background in amateur drama should prove useful when she is returned to the 28th Dail. She sits on one of Labour's safer seats.
Liz O'Donnell
Progressive Democrats
Dublin South
AFTER a three week campaign in 1992, the glamourous Ms O'Donnell stepped from obscurity into the political lime light and the photographers adored her. Graced with the looks of a Scott Fitzgerald heroine she has beneath that pristine appearance a pigheaded approach to the issues she adopts - such as the failure of the Attorney General's office to reply to the relatives of the victims of Father Brendan Smyth who were seeking compensation.
The still unexplained "sting" operation in the Urlingford drugs heist was another stick with which she beat the Minister for Justice. If the PDs get into government with FF, she will expect, at least, a junior Ministry.
Mary O'Rourke
Fianna Fail
Westmeath
TAKES no prisoners and carries a rockhard reputation for getting her own way. Dances like a smiling butterfly and stings like a queen bee. She has a great nose for a story and is consumer friendly. Deputy leader to Bertie Ahern, her ambition is legendary and her expect ions of further political achievement are likely - to be met in the form of a very senior Ministry - if Fianna Fail gets into power. Will she be made Tanaiste? If not, she expects to get one of the top numbers in Cabinet, hopefully Finance. Her favourite persona - that of wide eyed innocent - belies a creature capable of playing hard ball.
Nora Owen
Fine Gael
Dublin North
THE grand niece of Michael Collins, she keeps a bust of her most famous relative on her desk. As deputy leader of Fine Gael, she wanted Justice and, of all her peers in this Government, she will be judged most harshly.
Hers has not been an easy task as boss of a prison system bursting at the seams; an overburdened judicial system; a police force rent with squabbling and serious crime. Controversy hounded her from the outset. One of the greater blunders to mar her time in office was the failure to alert Judge Dominic Lynch that he was no longer a judge of the Special Criminal Court. He had, however, been delisted by Cabinet. A number of republican prisoners had to be released immediately, on Mrs Owen's instruction, but were subsequently rearrested The Cabinet's decision, in her absence, not to proceed with prison development led to her isolation. She demanded a change in attitude from her Cabinet colleagues. The bail referendum will be recalled as one of the main changes she implemented in her time. Surely she will be glad to say farewell to the "anni horribili".
Mairin Quill
Progressive Democrats
Cork North Central
THE most written off politician - after Charlie Haughey - in Irish politics. In the 1989 general election count she "conceded" defeat, live on air, in Cork North Central but, only two hours later, miraculously found that she had won by a handful of votes on the last count. Environment spokeswoman, she talks long and hard about her subject. A dogged and wily lady with an endless wardrobe, this time round she is likely to be elected more comfortably than ever before.
Roisin Shortall
Labour
Dublin North West
HER background might be Fianna Fail but she was elected for Labour in 1992. She topped the poll then, almost 3,000 votes in front of her nearest rival but her position is not the same today and her seat is considered vulnerable.
Hard working and determined, she has battled hard to keep her seat. More than any other woman in Leinster House, she led the debate on the negative social and economic implications of babies being born to young single women - a particular problem in her constituency.
Mary Wallace
Fianna Fail
Meath
A HARD constituency worker, she is known for championing the cause of the disabled. As a secondliner (nonfront bench) she made something of her task. Very conservative on social issues, she is implacably opposed to abortion. Not seen as senior Ministerial material, she suffers from being in the same constituency as one of FF's rising stars, Noel Dempsey.
