Pauline O'Reilly | |
|---|---|
 O'Reilly in 2020 | |
| Senator | |
| Assumed office 29 June 2020 | |
| Constituency | Labour Panel |
| Chair of the Green Party | |
| Assumed office 16 December 2021 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1974or1975(age 49–50) [1] Galway,Ireland |
| Political party | Green Party |
| Spouse | Conor O'Donovan |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | |
Pauline O'Reilly (born 1974/1975) is an Irish Green Party politician who has served as a Senator for the Labour Panel since June 2020, [2] [3] and chair of the Green Party since December 2021.
O'Reilly is a qualified solicitor. She is chair of the Galway Steiner National School.
O'Reilly was elected to Galway City Council at the 2019 local elections. [4]
O'Reilly stood unsuccessfully in Galway West at the 2020 general election. She won 6% of first preference votes and finished ninth in the five seat constituency. [5] [6]
She was elected to Seanad Éireann in 2020 as a senator for the Labour Panel. [7] She is the Green Party spokesperson for Education and Higher Education. [8] She is the leader of the Green Party in the Seanad. [9]
On 24 March 2021, O'Reilly was one of three Green Party senators to table a motion of no confidence against party chair Hazel Chu, after Chu announced her candidacy in a Seanad by-election as an independent, with O'Reilly stating she does not believe it's appropriate "to run as an independent candidate and also to be a chair of a party that’s in government and is supporting government candidates". [10]
On 16 December 2021, O'Reilly was elected as Chair of the Irish Green Party, succeeding Chu. [11] O'Reilly was re-elected to the position of party chair on 26 November 2023. [12]
O'Reilly was the Green Party's candidate for the Midlands–North-West constituency at the 2024 European Parliament election. [12] O'Reilly received 13,710 (2.0%) first preference votes but was not elected. [13]
O'Reilly has two children and practices unschooling with them. [14] [15] Her husband works from home. [16]
The Green Party is a green political party that operates in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It holds a pro-European stance. It was founded as the Ecology Party of Ireland in 1981 by Dublin teacher Christopher Fettes. The party became the Green Alliance in 1983 and adopted its current English language name in 1987 while the Irish name was kept unchanged. The party leader is Roderic O'Gorman, the deputy leader is Senator Róisín Garvey and the cathaoirleach (chairperson) is Pauline O'Reilly. Green Party candidates have been elected to most levels of representation: local government, Dáil Éireann, the Northern Ireland Assembly, and the European Parliament.
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