Hildegarde Naughton (39) is a classically trained soprano and primary schoolteacher who was appointed to the Seanad by Enda Kenny in July 2013. She unseated party colleague John Mulholland in the 2009 local elections. She ran unsuccessfully as one of four Fine Gael candidates in 2011, having claimed early in her campaign that local councillors were doing the bidding of a "hidden elite". She withdrew her comments when she was due to be nominated as city mayor in 2011-12 as part of a rotating pact.

She caused a stir in the early stages of the 2011 presidential election when she used her casting vote to deny Senator David Norris the right to address Galway city council as part of his nomination campaign, and later attributed this to a “misunderstanding”. Although not a gender quota candidate, she has welcomed the initiative and has played down claims that her party running mates, Seán Kyne and John O’Mahony, were not overly supportive of her. She is committed to job creation, investment, th e new harbour development now before An Bord Pleanála and the transfer of University Hospital Galway to Merlin Park.