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Stephen Donnelly
Donnelly in 2016
Minister for Health
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 June 2020
Taoiseach	Micheál Martin Leo Varadkar Simon Harris
Preceded by	Simon Harris
Leader of the Social Democrats with Catherine Murphy and Róisín Shortall
In office 15 July 2015 – 5 September 2016
Preceded by	New office
Succeeded by	Catherine Murphy Róisín Shortall
Teachta Dála
In office February 2011 – November 2024
Constituency	Wicklow
Personal details
Born	(1975-12-14) 14 December 1975 (age 49) Delgany, County Wicklow, Ireland
Political party	Fianna Fáil (since 2017)
Other political affiliations	Social Democrats (2015–2016) Independent (2011–2015)
Spouse	Susan Leavy
Children	3
Education	St David's Holy Faith
Alma mater	University College Dublin Massachusetts Institute of Technology Harvard University
Website	stephendonnelly.ie

Stephen Donnelly (born 14 December 1975) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who has served as Minister for Health since June 2020. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Wicklow constituency from 2011 until 2024.

On his election to Dáil Éireann, Donnelly first sat as an independent deputy. He then co-founded the Social Democrats in 2015, becoming joint leader of that new party. He left the Social Democrats in 2016, and represented Wicklow as an independent before joining Fianna Fáil in February 2017.

Education and career

Donnelly grew up in Dundrum, Dublin and later moved to Delgany. His mother was a teacher while his father "worked in retail."

He graduated from University College Dublin (UCD) in 1997 with a degree in mechanical engineering. He also worked and studied in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2000, Donnelly moved to London, where he worked as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company.

In 2008, he completed a master's degree in Public Administration in International Development at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He returned to work for McKinsey and Company, in Dublin, before deciding to run for office in 2011.

Political career

In October 2012, he addressed Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, in Dáil Éireann, on behalf of the technical group, saying: "€67 billion is being borrowed from the troika, virtually all of which is going into the banks and almost the same amount is being given by the banks to the senior bondholders in terms of forgone losses. This is what has happened: there has been a €67 billion circle of money from the troika through Ireland to the international banks and investors… I thank Mr. Schulz for his support and I hope he will be able to bring this simple message back: Ireland did not get a bailout and Ireland is not looking for aid or benevolence. We need our money back in order that we can contribute to the recovery of Europe."

Miriam Lord of The Irish Times made Donnelly her 2012 Politician of the Year, owing to his contributions on the post-2008 Irish banking crisis.

Independent and Social Democrats

Donnelly entered political life being elected as an independent TD at the 2011 general election. On 15 July 2015, Donnelly launched the Social Democrats, becoming co-leader along with former Labour Party TD Róisín Shortall and former Independent TD Catherine Murphy. Donnelly left the party on 5 September 2016, stating "some partnerships simply don't work". He has also said of this time in the party he helped found "it was a disaster. The leadership team was dysfunctional and made one bad decision after another."

After leaving the Social Democrats, Donnelly spent the next five months as an independent TD.

Fianna Fáil

In February 2017, Donnelly announced that he was joining Fianna Fáil. Upon joining, Donnelly said that he believed Fianna Fáil to be "the best team that most closely align with my politics who I believe are taking these challenges very seriously". During a 2017 radio interview, Donnelly was questioned about a previous newspaper column, in which, after paraphrasing an unnamed person about Fianna Fáil's perceived problems and "lack of accountability", Donnelly wrote that he "hate it when the cynics are right". Donnelly initially said that he did not know where the host was quoting from — later stating: "I stand corrected". He was appointed party spokesperson for Brexit. In a Front-Bench reshuffle in March 2018, he was appointed Fianna Fáil spokesperson on health. Donnelly was elected on the 15th count in the Wicklow constituency to the 33rd Dáil in the 2020 general election, with fewer votes than when he stood for the Social Democrats in 2016.

Drug laws

In a 2017 interview with Hot Press magazine, Donnelly spoke about smoking cannabis and use of other drugs. When asked whether he had taken drugs other than cannabis, Donnelly responded: "I have but that's all the detail I'm going to go into".

After being announced as a minister in the 2020 cabinet, Donnelly reportedly stood by his 2017 comments, and noted an openness to the liberalisation of some drug laws, stating that if "you're doing something that's not harming anybody else, it's hard to see a legitimate role for the State in prosecuting you for it". A 2020 news article described Donnelly as "broadly supportive" of supervised injection centres and open to making cannabis legal.

Minister for Health

As part of the coalition government of the 33rd Dáil, Donnelly was appointed Minister for Health by Taoiseach Micheál Martin on 27 June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland. His tenure resulted in several gaffes, most notably when he compared the danger to children from returning to schools during the pandemic to that of jumping on trampolines. He has been criticised for not being on top of his brief, for floating ideas in the media such as a mooted third change in several weeks to Ireland's vaccine rollout plan, and during the height of lockdown, querying why his department's officials weren't retweeting his tweets.

On 31 August 2022, Donnelly admitted that he failed to register a rental property in Dublin for three years with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), and only did so after it emerged Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy had also registered a property late. In a statement, his spokesperson said this was due to "an oversight" and had been corrected online "last week". Donnelly had declared a south Dublin rental property on the Dáil register of members' interests.

On 17 December 2022, he was re-appointed to the same position following Leo Varadkar's appointment as Taoiseach.

Donnelly stood in the 2024 general election and was not re-elected. He was one of two government ministers to lose their seats in the election.

Personal life

Donnelly lives in Greystones, County Wicklow, with his wife and three sons. He has a black belt in Taekwondo.

References

1. ^ Leahy, Pat (2 February 2017). "Wicklow TD Stephen Donnelly to join Fianna Fáil, party says". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
2. Bielenberg, Kim (6 February 2021). "Big Read: Stephen Donnelly as Health Minister – thumbs up or thumbs down?". independent.ie. Independent News & Media. Archived from the original on 24 February 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
3. "Stephen Donnelly". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
4. ^ "New coalition Cabinet: who has got what". RTÉ News and Current Affairs. 27 June 2020. Archived from the original on 23 September 2021. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
5. "Stephen Donnelly". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 11 September 2018. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
6. ^ Doyle, Kevin (5 September 2016). "'Some partnerships simply don't work' - Stephen Donnelly quits Social Democrats in major blow for party". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 23 September 2021. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
7. "The Hot Press Interview with Stephen Donnelly".
8. "Public Life Class Acts".
9. "Profile: Stephen Donnelly (SD)". irishtimes.com. Irish Times. 27 February 2016. Archived from the original on 11 September 2016. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
10. "Solving society's problems - bringing engineering experience to the Dáil". engineersireland.ie. Institution of Engineers of Ireland. 15 November 2016. Archived from the original on 22 July 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
11. ^ "About Stephen". stephendonnelly.ie. Archived from the original on 3 January 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
12. "Dáil debates". Archived from the original on 15 March 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2012.
13. Lord, Miriam (22 December 2012). "My Christmas crackers and festive turkeys". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 28 December 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
14. O'Connor, Niall (15 July 2015). "New Social Democrats group pledge to abolish water charges and repeal the Eighth Amendment". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 20 July 2015. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
15. "Stephen Donnelly MPA/ID 2008 changes political course".
16. Murray, Sean (2 February 2017). "Stephen Donnelly is joining Fianna Fáil but he hasn't always been the party's biggest fan". The Journal. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
17. ^ "Stephen Donnelly gets tongue tied as he denies writing Sunday Independent column". Irish Independent. 2 February 2017. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
18. "I'm joining FF to make a difference". Irish Examiner. 2 February 2017. Archived from the original on 4 February 2017. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
19. Bardon, Sarah (29 March 2018). "Fianna Fáil reshuffle: Dara Calleary appointed deputy leader". Irish Times. Archived from the original on 3 April 2018. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
20. "Election 2020: Wicklow Election Results". independent.ie. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2021.
21. "Wicklow results: Minister for Health Simon Harris re-elected". irishtimes.com. Irish Times. 9 February 2020. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
22. ^ Pownall, Sylvia (5 July 2020). "Health Minister Stephen Donnelly stands by a 2017 interview where he admitted to smoking cannabis: The Fianna Fail TD told Hot Press magazine he had visited a strip club and tried marijuana – and was open to the idea of making it legal". Archived from the original on 9 July 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
23. ^ Condon, Ali (6 July 2020). "Health Minister Donnelly stands by open minded attitude toward cannabis". extra.ie. Archived from the original on 15 October 2020. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
24. Gataveckaite, Gabija (20 August 2020). "WATCH: Health Minister Stephen Donnelly likens children going back to school amid a pandemic to jumping on a trampoline". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
25. ^ Loughlin, Elaine (13 April 2021). "Elaine Loughlin: Stephen Donnelly's fumbling of details painfully exposed". Irish Examiner. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
26. Lyne, Laura (17 April 2021). "Irish Twitter users react as Stephen Donnelly proposes under 30s should jump queue for COVID vaccine". Dublin Live. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
27. Bray, Jennifer; Leahy, Pat; Horgan-Jones, Jack; O'Leary, Naomi (17 April 2021). "Under-30s may get vaccinated early under new plan being considered to slow Covid-19". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
28. Carswell, Simon (12 April 2021). "Stephen Donnelly defends analysis of Twitter mentions by his department". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
29. Bray, Jennifer (31 August 2022). "Stephen Donnelly admits failing to register Dublin rental property on time". The Irish Times. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
30. Cunningham, Paul (31 August 2022). "Stephen Donnelly admits failure to renew tenancy registration with RTB". RTÉ News. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
31. Gataveckaite, Gabija (31 August 2022). "Health Minister Stephen Donnelly failed to register tenancy for three years". Irish Independent. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
32. Lehane, Micheál (17 December 2022). "Reshuffle: Who is in the new Cabinet?". RTÉ News. Retrieved 18 December 2022.
33. "Donnelly: From party co-founder to health minister". RTÉ. 2 December 2024. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
34. "They think it's all over: From Gráinne Seoige to Stephen Donnelly, big names who are down and (mostly) out". Irish Independent. 1 December 2024.

External links

• Stephen Donnelly's page on the Fianna Fáil website

• 1975 births
• Living people
• Alumni of University College Dublin
• Independent TDs
• Irish male taekwondo practitioners
• Harvard Kennedy School alumni
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
• McKinsey & Company people
• Members of the 31st Dáil
• Members of the 32nd Dáil
• Members of the 33rd Dáil
• Politicians from County Wicklow
• Fianna Fáil TDs
• Social Democrats (Ireland) TDs
• People from Greystones
• Ministers for health of Ireland