Peter O'Brien is an Irish Politician who stood as a Fianna Fáil candidate for election to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council during the 2009 Local Government Elections. He is currently employed as Personal Assistant to Mary Hanafin T.D., Minister for Social & Family Affairs. Prior to his employment with Hanafin he was employed in a number of NGO roles including as a Director of Support Services for the Special Olympics World Summer Games.
O'Brien has been appointed by Hanafin to a number of organisations including the National Children’s Advisory Council, Dún Laoghaire Local Drugs Task Force and the Dún Laoghaire Young People’s Facilities and Services Fund.
In November 2008, O'Brien was selected alongside sitting Fianna Fáil Councillor Cormac Devlin to seek election in the Dún Laoghaire Local Electoral Area.
During the course of the election O’Brien became embroiled in a number of embarrassing controversies. In late April the Mail on Sunday ran a story claiming Hanafin improperly used Oireachtas envelopes, which are provided at taxpayer expense, to promote O’Brien’s campaign launch in a local Dalkey Hotel.
On 17 May 2009 O'Brien became very publicly embroiled in a bitter dispute with a local pensioner over the placement of election posters he erected in his local area.
Throughout the Local Election Campaign, O'Brien attracted the strong support of Minister Mary Hanafin, with one newspaper commenting Hanafin was trying to "shaft" the sitting Fianna Fáil County Councillor Cormac Devlin.
On 26 May 2009, O'Brien became embroiled in further controversy when a national newspaper ran a story claiming Hanafin's office went as far as using tax payer funded resources to promote him in correspondence to voters in the Dún Laoghaire constituency.
O'Brien secured 647 (3.6%) first preference votes on polling day and failed to get elected.