A gender-quota candidate when she was first elected to the Dáil in 2016, Josepha Madigan (50) is also the first gender-quota Minister in Cabinet. "I have that illustrious title," she has said.
She got caught up in the controversy about the Maria Bailey personal injury claim over her fall from a hotel swing, but declined to comment on her involvement in the case, citing client-lawyer confidentiality. An internal party inquiry cleared her of any wrongdoing.
She was also director of elections for the referendum to repeal the eighth amendment banning abortion, and she spearheaded a successful referendum to cut divorce waiting times.
Elected in 2014 as a councillor for the Stillorgan ward on Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, she entered the Dáil after the 2016 election and was appointed Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht by the Taoiseach following the resignation of then tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald. Her election literature for the council campaign described plans for a Traveller halting site in the Mount Anville area as a “dreadful waste of taxpayers’ money”.
She worked as a family law solicitor for 17 years and published a legal book on dispute resolution and a novel called Negligent Behaviour.
She is married with two teenage sons.
