Brendan Howlin

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Brendan Howlin (Irish: Breandán Ó Húilín; born 1956) is an Irish Labour Party politician. He was elected as a Labour Party TD in 1987 and has held his seat ever since. He has previously served as Minister for Health (1993-1994) and Minister for the Environment (1994-1997). He is currently the Labour Party Spokesperson for Justice.

Named after former Labour Party leader Brendan Corish, Brendan Howlin was born in Wexford. He was educated locally at Wexford CBS and St. Patrick's Teacher Training College, Dublin. He worked as a primary school teacher before embarking on a political career in 1981 on Wexford Borough Council. He was unsuccessful in his attempt to be elected to Dáil Éireann in November 1982; however, he was nominated afterwards to serve in Seanad Éireann by Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald. Howlin was successful on his second attempt when he was elected as a Labour Party TD, retaking the traditional Labour Party seat in the Wexford constituency in the 1987 general election.

Howlin was immediately appointed Labour Party Chief Whip, a position he held until 1993. That year he became Minister for Health in the Fianna Fáil-Labour Party coalition government. After the fall of the Fianna Fáil-Labour coalition in December 1994, he was appointed Minister for the Environment in the new "Rainbow Coalition" government between Fine Gael, the Labour Party and Democratic Left.

In 1997 he was unsuccessful in his bid to succeed Dick Spring as leader of the Labour Party, being defeated by Ruairí Quinn. He became Deputy Leader of the party instead. In 2002, after Quinn's resignation as party leader after the relatively unsuccessful 2002 election campaign, he again stood for the party leadership. However, he was again unsuccessful in his bid, being defeated by Pat Rabbitte (formerly a leading figure in Democratic Left).

While having been publicly supportive of Rabbitte's leadership, he is perceived as being the leader of the wing of the party which is skeptical of Rabbitte's policy with regard to future coalition with Fianna Fáil. Rabbitte has explicitly ruled out any future coalition with Fianna Fáil, instead forming a formal alliance with Fine Gael in the run-up to the next election (the so-called Mullingar Accord). In the event of a failure of this Fine Gael-Labour alliance to gain enough seats to form a government at the next election, Howlin is viewed as being the leading contender for the party leadership in the event of a Fianna Fáil-Labour coalition being formed. (Rabbitte has stated that he would not be willing to lead the party in such an eventuality.)

Preceded by Michael D'Arcy (Fine Gael)	Labour Party Teachta Dála for Wexford 1987–	Succeeded by Current Incumbent
Preceded by John O'Connell	Minister for Health 1993-1994	Succeeded by Michael Woods
Preceded by Michael Smith	Minister for the Environment 1994-1997	Succeeded by Noel Dempsey