Anne Colley (born July 1951) is a former Irish Progressive Democrats politician who represented Dublin South from 1987 to 1989.
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Anne Colley was born in Dublin in 1951. She read Law at University College Dublin (UCD) and qualified as a solicitor. Colley's father, George, who was a senior Fianna Fáil politician, was closely aligned with PD founder Desmond O'Malley in the anti-Charles Haughey wing of the party prior to his sudden death in 1983. Her grandfather, Harry Colley, was also a TD.
She first entered national politics as one of 14 Progressive Democrat TDs elected to Dáil Éireann in the 1987 general election, the first election after the party was founded. The party proved hugely popular, surpassing the Labour Party as the third biggest party in the Dáil.
Colley was appointed party spokesperson on Institutional Reform, Labour & the Public Service and in 1988 became spokesperson on Justice. She lost her seat at the 1989 general election and retired from politics.
In 2006 she was appointed by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to chair a working group on Civil Unions in Ireland.[1][2] Officially called the Options Paper on Cohabiting Couples, (2006) (Dept of Justice, Equality and Law Reform), the paper became known as the Colley Report.[3]