Background
Kathleen Lynch was born in Cork.
Kathleen Lynch was born in Cork.
She is a Teachta Dála (Territorial Decoration) for the Cork North–Central constituency and is the Minister of State for Primary Care, Mental Health and Disability. She came to prominence as a campaigner against service charges being introduced by the corporation. Lynch was first elected to Dáil Éireann as Democratic Left Territorial Decoration for Cork North–Central at a by-election in 1994 caused by the death of Labour Party Territorial Decoration Gerry O"Sullivan.
She lost her Dáil seat at the 1997 general election but was re-elected again at the 2002 general election, this time for the Labour Party following the merger of Democratic Left with that party in 1999.
On 10 March 2011, she was appointed as Minister of State for Disability, Equality and Mental Health. The position was changed to Minister of State for Primary Care, Mental Health and Disability in July 2014.
She lost her seat at the 2016 general election. In April 2008 she was involved in a controversy where she wrote a letter testifying the good character of the parents of a man accused of raping two teenage sisters.
The man was convicted and sentenced for 13 years.
In a statement she said: "Having heard an interview with one of the victims in the case, who was clearly distressed by my letter and having considered the matter and discussed it with colleagues I now accept that it was inappropriate for a Territorial Decoration to have become involved in any way in a case of such seriousness. If my action has in any way added to the ordeal of the two victims in this case, then I deeply regret that and offer them my apologies."
The Mail on Sunday then reported that Bernard Lynch had been convicted of the murder of Larry White in Cork in 1975, and that the conviction had been overturned by the appeals court when a statement was ruled inadmissible because the legal period of detention had elapsed when the statement was taken.
She first became involved in politics in 1985 when she was elected to Cork Corporation for the Workers" Party. When that party split in 1992, Lynch and other members of the Cork organisation were initially undecided as to their stance, but she subsequently decided to follow former party president Proinsias De Rossa and the bulk of the party"s TDs into the new organisation which later took the name Democratic Left.
Bernard Lynch was a member of Official Sinn Féin.