constituency children birth_place nationality party office birth_date term_start spouse article_title term_end name alma_mater
labour leitrim panel nominated by the taoiseach roscommon roscommon -- 4 county roscommon , ireland irish fianna fáil senator teachta dála 1 october 1945 september 2002 2 december 1992 june 1981 june 1977 mary o'connor terry leyden
 17 december 1992 november 1992 june 1981 terry leyden university college galway
terry leyden

terry leyden -lrb- born 1 october 1945 -rrb- is an irish fianna fáil politician .
formerly a teachta dála -lrb- td -rrb- , he is a member of seanad Éireann .
an architect by profession , he was elected to roscommon county council in 1974 , and re-elected in 1979 and 1985 .
leyden was elected to dáil Éireann on his first attempt , at the 1977 general election , when he was returned to the 21st dáil as a td for the roscommon -- leitrim constituency .
he was returned for the new roscommon constituency at the 1981 general election , and re-elected a further four times before losing his seat at the 1992 general election in the new longford -- roscommon constituency .
from march to december 1982 , he served as minister of state at the department of transport and minister of state at the department of posts and telegraphs .
he served as minister of state at the department of health from 1987 -- 89 , and as minister of state at the department of industry and commerce from 1989 -- 92 .
following his dáil defeat , he then sat very briefly in the 19th seanad , having been nominated by the taoiseach albert reynolds on 2 december 1992 .
after the 19th seanad last sat on 17 december 1992 , he stood unsuccessfully in the 1993 election to seanad Éireann on the administrative panel , and was unsuccessful again in 1997 on the industrial and commercial panel .
in 1999 leyden was re-elected to roscommon county council , a position that he held until the ending of the dual mandate , when his seat was taken by his daughter , orla leyden .
leyden was also a member of the western health board from 1992 -- 2002 , and was chairman in 2001 -- 2002 .
he was elected to the 22nd seanad by the labour panel in september 2002 and re-elected in 2007 and 2011 .
he is the fianna fáil seanad spokesperson on children and european affairs .
in may 2010 he invoked parliamentary privilege and accused `` the irish times '' columnist fintan o'toole of incitement to riot , which o'toole denied .
this came about as a result of the latter 's addressing of a demonstration against the bank bailouts proposed by the government , which later turned violent .
in july 2013 he claimed that adolf hitler and benito mussolini were `` good christians '' while speaking in the seanad .
on realising the absurd nature of his comments , he apologised to the chair and admitted he was distracted .
he is a member of the royal institute of the architects of ireland by virtue of inclusion on the `` minister 's list '' .
prior to his inclusion on the riai register he was a member of the irish architects society , the majority of whose members did not have formal qualifications for entry on the architect 's register .
