Donegal-based activist Eileen Flynn has become the first member of the Travelling community to be elected to the Oireachtas.
Ms Flynn was appointed to the Seanad on Saturday following nomination to the Labour panel by TD Thomas Pringle and the three People Before Profit TDs.
Nine of Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s 11 appointments to the Seanad are women, while four women were appointed as Senior Ministers yesterday.
Ms Flynn, aged 30, has lived in Ardara since 2018, where she and her husband Liam White are raising their daughter.
She has worked as an activist and community development worker for many years, championing equality and human rights for Traveller women and girls, along with housing rights and anti-racism.
Having grown up in the Labre Park Traveller housing site in Ballyfermot, Dublin, Ms Flynn has worked to break down barriers for her community.
She is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and Maynooth University and has been involved with the Irish Traveller Movement, the National Traveller Women’s Forum and Ballyfermot Traveller Action Programme.
This government’s cabinet appointments are a missed opportunity, Women for Election has said, as the same number of women (4) were appointed as Senior Ministers this time.
Ciairín de Buis, CEO of Women for Election said: “It is disappointing that once again a government have missed the opportunity to appoint a balanced cabinet. There has now been a total of 23 women who have been appointed to cabinet since the foundation of the state. That’s not good enough.”
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