Mary Coughlan

Early life

Coughlan was born in Donegal Town in the south of County Donegal in May 1965. Her father was Cathal Coughlan, a Fianna Fáil TD, who died in office in June 1986. She was educated at Ballydevitt National School, on the outskirts of Donegal Town, the Ursuline College in Sligo, where she was a boarder from 1978 to 1983; and later at University College Dublin (UCD), graduating with a Social Science degree. She worked as a social worker for a brief period before becoming involved in politics.

Political career

Early political life

Coming from a political family, Coughlan was always interested in politics and joined a Fianna Fáil cumann (a local party branch) at the age of 16. Her uncle Clement Coughlan was a TD from 1980 until his death in 1983 in a road traffic accident, while her father Cathal Coughlan was a TD from 1983 to 1986 when he died after a short illness. Following the death of her father, Coughlan was co-opted onto Donegal County Council in 1986, which launched her political career. She was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1987 general election as a Fianna Fáil TD for Donegal South-West. At the age of 21 years and nine months, Coughlan was the youngest member of the 25th Dáil.

She remained on the backbenches of the Dáil for the first thirteen years of her career as a TD, before being appointed a junior minister. During this period she served on several Oireachtas committees, including the Joint Committee on Tourism, Sport and Recreation and the Joint Committee on the Irish language where she served as chairperson. Coughlan was also a member of the British-Irish Parliamentary Body. In 1994, Bertie Ahern became leader of Fianna Fáil and Leader of the Opposition. In early 1995 he named his new front bench, including Coughlan as spokesperson on educational reform. She was not included in the cabinet or junior ministerial team when the party came to office in 1997.

Minister of State

In February 2001, Coughlan was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, with responsibility for the Gaeltacht and Islands. In this role for just sixteen months, she was responsible for securing Government approval for the general scheme of the Official Languages Equality Bill, which aimed to confirm the language rights of citizens and outline their rights when dealing with the State in either official language. She also oversaw an amended Gaeltacht Housing Act, updating the supports available for Irish-speaking households building in or moving to the Gaeltacht. The Commission on Irish in the Gaeltacht (Comisiún na Gaeltachta) also completed its work under her guidance and Coughlan saw its report approved and published. During her time in this role, she also established a Working Group on the Creation of Employment in the Gaeltacht. Coughlan oversaw significant investment in island infrastructure and the connection of islands to the national electricity grid, including Inishbofin Island, off the County Donegal coast, which was connected for the first time in 2002 by using an underwater cable from the mainland.

Cabinet career (2002–2011)

After the 2002 general election Coughlan was promoted to the cabinet as Minister for Social and Family Affairs. Her time in Social and Family Affairs saw increases in social welfare payments and the extension of family support. She established the Family Support Agency with a mandate to support families, promote stability in family life, prevent marital breakdown and foster a supportive community environment for families at a local level.

Coughlan received criticism for changes she made regarding the availability of rent supplements. This was portrayed as targeting the weaker sections of society at a time when the Irish economy was reasonably strong. She was also widely criticised for cuts she made as Minister to entitlements for widows and widowers after the death of a spouse. The cuts were part of a wider drive for a reduction in government spending in the autumn of 2002. However, many considered these and other similar cutbacks to have been forced upon her by Charlie McCreevy, who was Minister for Finance at the time, and who was blamed for many of his decisions. She was also involved in resolving a dispute over payments with the country's dentists.

During her time as Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Coughlan was praised for introducing large increases in child benefits and pensions. Her work on the pensions element of her portfolio also saw her introduce Personal Retirement Savings Accounts. Coughlan also established the Office of the Pensions Ombudsman and provided additional funding and support for the State's Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS).

In a 2004 reshuffle, Coughlan succeeded Joe Walsh as Minister for Agriculture and Food, becoming the first woman to hold that portfolio in the Republic of Ireland (her fellow Donegal woman, Bríd Rodgers, had become the first woman to be appointed as a full-ranking Agriculture Minister in Ireland when she had been appointed Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development in the Northern Ireland Executive in December 1999, serving until October 2002).

During her time in this role the country's last two remaining sugar factories, owned by Greencore, were closed. The Carlow factory closed on 11 March 2005. Mallow, Ireland's last sugar factory to remain open, closed on 12 May 2006, after operating for 77 years. Farmers and others were critical of the decision. They criticised the government's and the Minister's roles, both were seen as not doing enough to try to stop the closures, though they had retained some control over the factories since they had been privatised several years before. As sugar beet growers now had nowhere to sell their sugar beet, cultivation of the crop ceased in Ireland. Coughlan also headed this department at a time when the spread of bird flu from abroad looked very likely to occur, especially in 2006.

Loss of seat

At the 2011 general election, Coughlan lost her seat to Independent candidate Thomas Pringle. Her first preference vote more than halved from 26.5% in 2007 to just over 11%. Her running mate Brian Ó Domhnaill also failed to be elected, leaving Donegal South-West without a Fianna Fáil TD for the first time in its history. The loss of her seat was considered the most high-profile casualty of the Fianna Fáil meltdown. The Guardian newspaper described it as "Ireland's Portillo moment". Coughlan received a lump sum of €237,000, and an annual pension of €140,000. In 2022, Coughlan stepped back into public life when she was appointed Chair of the National Conference on Women in Farming by her successor as Donegal Fianna Fáil TD, the Minister for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue.

Views on LGBT rights

During her time as Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Coughlan became involved in several LGBT rights controversies. In March 2004, she introduced the Social Welfare Amendment Act 2004 in response to a case involving same-sex partner benefits. Under the Equal Status Act 2000, a gay pensioner successfully petitioned the Equality Authority to allow his male partner to travel as his 'spouse' using the pensioner's travel pass. The legislation which Coughlan subsequently produced limited the meaning of the word 'spouse' to include only married couples; this was regarded by the Opposition parties and LGBT rights campaigners as discriminatory towards same-sex couples as there had been no legal recognition of same-sex unions in the Republic of Ireland at the time. Two months later, Coughlan caused comment at a European Union conference on family and social policy by stating that Ireland would never be ready for same-sex marriage or gay adoption.

During her time in Social and Family Affairs, Coughlan produced a report discussing new definitions of 'the family' which recommended a more progressive approach to the matter. This influenced the government's 2008 civil union legislation.

Personal life

Coughlan is a fluent Irish speaker.

In 1991 Coughlan married David Charlton, a Garda Síochána officer who was working at Leinster House. Several years after their marriage, Charlton was seriously injured in a car accident, losing his leg. The couple have two children - a son and a daughter. They lived at Frosses, a village just west of Donegal town. Charlton died from cancer on 2 September 2012.

Coughlan served as secretary of the St Naul's GAA club.