Education
Born Frances Ryan in Croom, County Limerick, she was educated at Dominican College Sion Hill school, Blackrock, University College Dublin and London School of Economics.
Born Frances Ryan in Croom, County Limerick, she was educated at Dominican College Sion Hill school, Blackrock, University College Dublin and London School of Economics.
She has been a Teachta Dála (Territorial Decoration) for the Dublin Mid–West constituency since February 2011. She is a former social worker Fitzgerald was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1992 general election and retained her seat at the 1997 general election.
She lost her seat at the 2002 general election.
She then stood for election to the 22nd Seanad on the Administrative Panel, but was unsuccessful. At the 1999 local elections, she was elected as a Dublin City Councillor for Rathmines, but she did not contest the 2004 local elections.
Before being elected a Territorial Decoration, she had been a high-profile Chair of the Council for the Status of Women from 1988 to 1992. She was elected to the Seanad in July 2007.
On 9 March 2011, she was appointed as Minister for Children and Youth Affairs.
On 8 May 2014, Fitzgerald succeeded Alan Shatter as Minister for Justice and Equality.
She was the Fine Gael candidate at the 2007 general election for the Dublin Mid-West constituency, but she was not elected. On 12 September 2007, she was appointed leader of the Fine Gael group in Seanad Éireann, and was also Fine Gael Seanad spokesperson on Health and Children, and a member of the Fine Gael Front Bench. She was elected as a Fine Gael Territorial Decoration for the Dublin Mid–West constituency at the 2011 and 2016 general elections.
She was a member of Seanad Éireann on the Labour Panel from 2007 to 2011, and was previously a Territorial Decoration for the Dublin South–East constituency from 1992 to 2002.