Terence Flanagan

Terence Flanagan (born 1 January 1975) is an Irish politician.^[1] He has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North–East constituency since being elected at the general election of May 2007. He was previously a member of Dublin City Council for the Artane area;^[2] originally co-opted onto the Council to replace Richard Bruton, due to the ending of dual mandates in September 2003, he was elected to the Council in 2004. Upon Flanagan's election to the Dail in 2007, his brother Declan was co-opted onto the City Council.

In February 2008 Flanagan made a speech which was notably similar to a previous one by Labour Party TD Joan Burton. He initially denied that the speech was copied, but later issued a statement admitting and apologising for the plagiarism.^[3] He was Fine Gael deputy spokesperson on the Environment, with special responsibility for Housing, from October 2007 to March 2011.

Flanagan was expelled from the Fine Gael parliamentary party on 2 July 2013 when he defied the party whip by voting against the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013.^[4][5] On 13 September 2013 he and six other expellees formed the Reform Alliance, described as a "loose alliance" rather than a political party.^[6]

On 13 March 2015 a new political party, Renua Ireland, was launched with Flanagan as one of its three sitting TDs and many other Reform Alliance members as declared election candidates. Later that day Flanagan represented the party in an interview on RTÉ's Drivetime radio news programme, where he was unable to answer any questions about the party's policies.^[7][8][9]

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