Teachta Dála
Which position did Barry Andrews (politician) hold from Jun 2002 to Apr 2007?
Barry Andrews ( politician ) Barry Andrews ( born 16 May 1967 ) is an Irish politician who serves as a Member of the European Parliament ( MEP ) for the Dublin constituency . He is a member of Fianna Fáil , part of Renew Europe . He previously served as Minister of State for Children from 2008 to 2011 . He was a Teachta Dála ( TD ) for the Dún Laoghaire constituency from 2002 to 2011 . The Andrews family have a long connection with Fianna Fáil . Before entering political life , Andrews was a secondary school teacher . He was the Director-General of the Dublin-based Institute of International and European Affairs ( IIEA ) , a partly Irish State-funded EU think tank , since 2017 . He was CEO of GOAL from 2012 to 2016 , during which the agency grew from a turnover of €60m to more than €150m . He announced his resignation to allow for ‘a fresh start in terms of leadership’ in October 2016 in the wake of a fraud in the charity that was discovered in March 2016 . Early career and personal life . He was born in Dublin and was educated at Blackrock College and University College Dublin ( UCD ) , where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Philosophy in 1988 , and a Masters of Arts in Modern History in 1990 . He worked as a secondary school teacher in Dublin from 1991 until 1997 , working in Ballyfermot Senior College , Sutton Park School and Bruce College . While a secondary school teacher , he studied law at Kings Inns and qualified as a barrister in 1997 . His brother , David McSavage is a comedian , and his first cousin is the RTÉ television and radio presenter Ryan Tubridy . Political career . Andrews was first elected to public office in the June 1999 local elections as a Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Councillor . He was elected to Dáil Éireann at the 2002 general election . Andrews comes from a family with strong political connections . His grandfather , Todd Andrews , fought in the War of Independence and became a founder-member of Fianna Fáil , and his grandmother , Mary Coyle , was a member of Cumann na mBan . Andrewss father , David Andrews served as a TD from 1965 to 2002 and is a former Foreign Minister , while his uncle , Niall Andrews , was a former Fianna Fáil TD and MEP and his cousin , Chris Andrews ( son of Niall Andrews ) , has been a Sinn Féin TD since 2020 ( having previously served as a Fianna Fáil TD from 2007 to 2011 ) . In April 2018 , Andrews was described as part of Fianna Fáil royalty . In June 2006 , Andrews led a group of Fianna Fáil backbenchers in an unsuccessful attempt to establish a backbench committee to influence government policy . At the 2007 general election , Andrews retained his seat in Dún Laoghaire with 8,587 votes . Minister of State for Children . Andrews was appointed Minister of State for Children in May 2008 . As Minister , he framed the Government response to the Ryan Report on Institutional Abuse . This included an Implementation Plan that delivered an additional 200 social workers for the HSE Child and Family Services . In April 2009 , Andrews introduced the Early Childhood Care and Education ( ECCE ) Scheme , which provided , for the first time , free universal access to pre-school education . The scheme benefited 65,000 children in 2013 . After the release of the Murphy Report into child abuse in the Dublin diocese in November 2009 , Andrews , speaking at a conference in Dublin Castle , said it would be amazing if there were no consequences for people who were the subject of adverse findings in the report . Asked about the position of the Bishop of Limerick , Donal Murray , the Minister said , I think its everybodys view that if adverse findings are made against an individual in a commission of inquiry then it would be amazing that there be no consequences for them. . Bishop Murray subsequently apologised to survivors and resigned from office . In December 2009 , Andrews oversaw the introduction of government policy to lower the legal age of consent to 16 . Citing a Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution report which recommended the legal age be reduced to 16 from the current 17 . Andrews expressed the view the existing laws were inappropriate and out of touch with the modern reality of sexual relations between young people , and promised to publish legislation to change the Age of Consent to 16 . He noted that Ireland and Malta were the only countries in Europe with an age of consent of 17 . However , the law was not passed by the Oireachtas before the 2011 Irish general election in which Fianna Fáil ceded power to a Fine Gael-Labour coalition . On 31 January 2011 , in the run up to the general election , Andrews was named Health spokesman by the party leader , Micheál Martin . He lost his seat at the general election . For his eight years service as a TD , Andrews was entitled to a lump sum of €110,312 , a partial TDs pension between the ages of 45 and 49 ( which he has not claimed ) , and beginning at age 50 a full pension of approximately €16,000 per year . He is entitled to a ministerial pension of approximately €9,000 from the age of 65 . Childrens Referendum . In September 2012 , he was appointed Fianna Fáil Director of Elections for the Childrens referendum . 2019 European Parliament election . In February 2019 , he was selected as the Fianna Fáil candidate for the Dublin constituency at the 2019 European Parliament election . He was elected in May 2019 receiving 14.1% of the 1st preference votes , but as the fourth candidate elected he did not take his seat until after the UK left the European Union on 31 January 2020 . Non-political career . In November 2012 , Andrews was appointed chief executive of the Irish aid charity GOAL , replacing the retiring founder John OShea . In October 2016 , Andrews resigned from GOAL after it was revealed that other senior executives of Goal had been involved in large-scale fraud , though there was no suggestion that he himself was involved in the scandal . In October 2017 , the new CEO of GOAL announced a deficit of €31.6 million due to the fraud but said that it would survive after one of the most challenging years in its 40-year history . In March 2017 , Andrews was appointed as Director-General of the Irish State-supported EU think tank and advocacy body , the Institute of International and European Affairs ( IIEA ) , with the Chairperson of the IIEA , former Leader of the Labour Party , Ruairi Quinn , describing Andrews as having the political and administrative skills of value to the IIEA .