Preceded by New office Spouse Aine Kerr Constituency North Inner City Role Politician | Name Aodhan Riordain Preceded by New office Nationality Irish | |
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Born July 1976Dublin, Ireland ( 1976-07 ) Profiles | ||
Constituency Dublin North–Central | ||
Viral, Irish Senator Standing Up To President Donald Trump | AM Joy | MSNBC
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin ([iːaːn̪ˠ oː ˈɾʲiːɾˠd̪ˠaːnʲ]; born 22 July 1976) is an Irish Labour Party Senator. He was elected as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North–Central constituency at the 2011 general election. He lost his Dáil seat at the 2016 general election, but was elected to Seanad Éireann on the Industrial and Commercial Panel in April 2016.
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Councillor and TD
Ó Ríordáin was a Labour Party member of Dublin City Council for the North Inner City electoral area from 2004 to 2009 and then for the Clontarf electoral area from 2009 to 2011. He served as Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin in 2006, during which time he launched his ‘Right to Read Campaign’ in an effort to improve the poor literacy rates in disadvantaged areas.
His move in 2009 to the Clontarf area positioned Ó Ríordáin to run for election to Dáil Éireann in the Dublin North–Central constituency, which he did at the 2011 general election; he took the second seat on the fourth count with 10,192 votes. As a member of the Labour backbenches, he served as Vice-Chairperson of the Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection and as a member of both the Finance, Public Expenditure & Reform Committee and the Good Friday Agreement Implementation Committee.
Minister of State
On 15 July 2014 Ó Ríordáin was appointed Minister of State with responsibility for New Communities, Culture and Equality at the Departments of Justice and Equality and Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. As Minister of State he prioritised reforming the Direct Provision system, ending the legal entitlement of Church-controlled state-funded institutions to discriminate against LGBT people, and he played a key role in the Yes campaign in the 2015 Marriage Equality Referendum.
On 28 April 2013 the Sunday Independent reported that Ó Ríordáin was secretly recorded by a pro-life activist as stating that the X-case legislation was only "the starting point", but that he would not state this publicly.
As Minister of State for New Communities Ó Ríordáin coordinated the Polska Éire 2015 festival, which was a week-long cultural and sporting festival in the run-up to the March 2015 Republic of Ireland v. Poland UEFA European Championship qualifier.
In April 2015, Ó Ríordáin was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Health, with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy, in addition to his existing ministerial duties.
Seanad Éireann
Ó Ríordáin's bid for re-election to the Dáil in Dublin North–Central at the 2016 general election was unsuccessful. However, he remained as a caretaker Minister of State for New Communities, Culture, Equality and Drug Strategy during the prolonged talks on government formation that followed, earning €6,611 in that time, and was nominated by Labour for election to Seanad Éireann. In April 2016, shortly before this period elapsed, he was elected to the 25th Seanad on the Industrial and Commercial Panel.
Following his own success in gaining the Labour Party leadership, Brendan Howlin appointed Ó Ríordáin as Labour's spokesperson on Environment and Sustainable Development, and Gaeltacht Affairs.
Personal life
Ó Ríordáin is a former teacher, and was principal of St. Laurence O'Toole's Girls' Primary School. He is married to Áine Kerr, Manager of News Partnerships at Facebook and former Managing Editor of Storyful.