Mervyn Taylor

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Mervyn Taylor (born December 1, 1931) is a former Irish Labour Party TD.

Mervyn Taylor (Irish: Muirís Táilliúir) was born in Dublin, Ireland to a Jewish family. He was educated at Zion School, Wesley College Dublin and at Trinity College Dublin where he qualified as a solicitor. He was elected to Dáil Éireann as the Labour Party TD for Dublin South West at the 1981 general election and held the seat at every election until his retirement from politics in 1997.

He was Chairperson of the Labour Party and was Labour chief whip from 1981 until 1988. He was assistant government chief whip from 1981 to 1982, and again from 1982 until 1987. In 1993 he was appointed as Minister for Labour (for a brief period) and then served as Minister for Equality and Law Reform during the two Governments of 1993-94 and 1994-97.

In 1995, he was in charge of the government proposal to remove from the constitution the prohibition of divorce legislation, steering the relevant bills through Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann and winning the subsequent referendum by the narrow margin of 0.5 per cent. In the course of the campaign, he survived criticism of the measure directed at his Jewish faith, as well as a Irish Supreme Court ruling that public monies could not properly be spent in promoting the government's opinion on a referendum proposal.

His other major project was the introduction of new, wide ranging anti-discrimination measures, the Employment Equality Bill and the Equal Status Bill. These measures were both struck down by the Supreme Court but revised versions were approved by the Government in the final months of Taylor's term of office and these were ultimately published and enacted during the following Dáil term.

He is married to the former Marilyn Fisher, author of numerous books for young people. They have 2 sons and a daughter, one of whom, Gideon, is based in the United States.

[edit] Political career

Preceded by Brian Cowen	Minister for Labour 1993	Succeeded by Position abolished, Department of Labour merged into Department of Enterprise and Employment
Preceded by New position	Minister for Equality & Law Reform 1993-1994 and 1994-1997	Succeeded by Department Abolished and merged with Department of Justice