Joan Burton - Political Career

Political Career

She first stood for election at the 1989 general election, when she stood as one of two Labour candidates in the Dublin Central constituency, failing to get elected. At the local elections in 1991, she was elected to Dublin County Council for the Mulhuddart electoral area. Burton was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1992 general election, representing Dublin West in the 27th Dáil. She was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Social Welfare in the Fianna Fáil–Labour Party coalition that was formed after that election. With the breakdown of that coalition and establishment of a Rainbow Coalition between the Labour Party, Fine Gael and Democratic Left in early 1995, she became Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, a position she held until the coalition's defeat at 1997 general election.

She lost her seat at the 1997 general election to Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party. Joan was re-elected to Fingal County Council in the 1999 local elections, on this occasion winning a seat in the Castleknock electoral area. She was re-elected to the Dáil for Dublin West at the 2002 general election. She was then appointed the Spokesperson on Finance. She was a candidate for the deputy leadership of the party in 2002, obtaining 24% of the first preference vote, but was unsuccessful. She became deputy leader of the Labour Party in September 2007.

She was voted by political journalists as the Magill TD of the Year 2007 and 2008.

Burton was re-elected to represent Dublin West at the 2011 general election, topping the poll on the 1st count with 9,627 votes, and was the first TD to be elected in the country for the 31st Dáil.