Education
Clune was educated at Ursuline Convent Cork, and qualified as a Civil and Environmental Engineer from University College Cork and Trinity College, Dublin.
Clune was educated at Ursuline Convent Cork, and qualified as a Civil and Environmental Engineer from University College Cork and Trinity College, Dublin.
Clune was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1997 general election succeeding her father, Peter Barry who was retiring. She lost her seat at the 2002 general election. She also contested the 2002 elections to the 22nd Seanad on the Industrial and Commercial Panel, but was unsuccessful.
Clune regained her Dáil seat at the 2007 general election.
She was party deputy spokesperson on Enterprise with special responsibility for Innovation from 2007 to 2010. In July 2010, she was appointed as party spokesperson on Innovation and Research.
At the 2014 European Parliament election, she was elected for the South constituency.
In the Dáil, she was appointed Fine Gael front bench spokesperson on Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands in June 2000 and spokesperson on Environmental and Consumer Affairs from February 2001. She was subsequently elected to Seanad Éireann on the Cultural and Educational Panel in April 2011, where she served as Fine Gael Seanad spokesperson on Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation.
She was previously a member of Seanad Éireann from 2011 to 2014 and was also a Teachta Dála (Territorial Decoration) for the Cork South–Central constituency. Her grandfather Anthony Barry had also been a Territorial Decoration, making her a third generation member of the Dáil. She was a member of Cork City Council and became the 68th Lord Mayor of Cork on 27 June 2005.