Josepha Madigan

Madigan served as a Councillor for the Stillorgan Ward on Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, from May 2014 until her election as a TD in 2016. [9]

Madigan issued a leaflet in 2014 claimed that providing accommodation for Travellers in her constituency would be "a waste of valuable resources". When asked about this later, Madigan claimed "Some people won't want to live beside people in halting sites [...] there might be more crime, that there might be anti-social behaviour".[10][11]

Madigan was elected to Dáil Éireann following the 2016 general election as a Fine Gael TD for the Dublin Rathdown constituency, beating sitting Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter by nearly 1,000 votes.

She was appointed Chair of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight in July 2017.[12]

Madigan was three weeks a TD, when she was asked to participate in the 2016 government formation talks.

Prior to becoming a minister, she was an active member of the Public Accounts Committee. She also brought forward a private member's bill to reduce the waiting time for divorce in Ireland from four years to two, which was passed by the Dáil. [13]

On 30 November 2017, Madigan was appointed to the cabinet as Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, in a reshuffle following the resignation of the Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald.[14]

On 29 March 2018, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar appointed Madigan as the coordinator for the Fine Gael Yes campaign in the referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment.[15]

She was re-elected in February 2020, taking the third seat behind Green Party Deputy Leader Catherine Martin and party colleague Neale Richmond. On 1 July 2020, Madigan was appointed Minister of State for Special Education and Inclusion by Taoiseach Micheál Martin.[16] On 14 January 2021, Madigan came under fire for describing children without additional needs as ‘normal’ while speaking in the Dáil. [17]

"We all know that even for normal children remote teaching is difficult but for children who have additional needs it is particularly difficult," she said.

Later that day on Twitter, the minister said she 'sincerely apologises for the language she used.' “It is absolutely not what I meant to say.” [18] On 20 January 2021, speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne , Madigan compared children with additional needs not attending school to the mother and baby homes. [19]

"We've spent the last week talking about mother and baby homes, where our most vulnerable were left to their own devices in less than satisfactory conditions and we're now allowing further anxiety and upset to be placed on the shoulders of parents whose children desperately need to go back to school."

The Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and Related Matters was published the week prior to Madigan's comments. Madigan later apologised in a statement.

"I am, as are all involved in supporting these children [children with additional needs], passionate about vindicating their rights and in reaching for an analogy I chose poorly. I apologise fully."