Mary Flaherty (politician)

{{Short description|Irish former Fine Gael politician (b. 1953)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}}

{{Use Hiberno-English|date=April 2023}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| image =

| office = Minister of State

| suboffice = Social Welfare

| subterm = 1981–1982

| office1 = Teachta Dála

| term_start1 = June 1981

| term_end1 = June 1997

| constituency1 = Dublin North-West

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1953|5|17|df=y}}

| birth_place = Dublin, Ireland

| death_date =

| death_place =

| nationality = Irish

| party = Fine Gael

| spouse = {{marriage|Alexis FitzGerald Jnr|1980|2016|end=his death}}

| children = 4

| alma_mater = University College Dublin

|}}

Mary Flaherty (born 17 May 1953) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Minister of State for Poverty and the Family from 1981 to 1982. She served a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North-West constituency from 1981 to 1997.{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Mary-Flaherty.D.1981-06-30/|title=Mary Flaherty|work=Oireachtas Members Database|access-date=7 February 2013|archive-date=24 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024211857/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Mary-Flaherty.D.1981-06-30/|url-status=live}}

Before her entry into politics, she was a secondary school teacher. Flaherty was elected to the Dáil on her first attempt, at the 1981 general election, as a Fine Gael candidate in the Dublin North-West constituency.{{cite web|url=http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=3319|title=Mary Flaherty|work=ElectionsIreland.org|access-date=7 February 2013|archive-date=28 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120928204129/http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=3319|url-status=live}}

That election saw Fine Gael return to power in a coalition government with the Labour Party, and on her first day in the Dáil Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald appointed Flaherty as Minister of State at the Department of Social Welfare. This was a junior post under Minister Eileen Desmond, but because Desmond's health was poor Flaherty often found herself bearing much of the responsibility for the department.

The government collapsed on 27 January 1982, when it lost a vote on the budget, and Flaherty left office when the new Fianna Fáil government was installed after the February 1982 general election. She later described her rapid promotion as having caused dissatisfaction amongst some older Fine Gael TDs who resented the rise of a 28-year-old woman.

Flaherty had been re-elected to the 23rd Dáil, and retained her seat through the next four general elections before losing it at the 1997 general election to Fianna Fáil's Pat Carey.

After leaving the Dáil, she became Chief Executive of the CARI Foundation, a voluntary organisation supporting children affected by child sexual abuse.

In 1980, Flaherty married to Alexis FitzGerald Jnr, later a Fine Gael senator and TD, they had four children. FitzGerald died on 15 July 2015.