Willie Penrose

Willie Penrose TD
File:Willie Penrose 2005.jpg Penrose pictured in 2005.
Minister of State for Housing and Planning
In office 9 March 2011 – 15 November 2011
Preceded by	New office
Succeeded by	Jan O'Sullivan
Teachta Dála
Incumbent
Assumed office May 2007
Constituency	Longford–Westmeath
In office November 1992 – May 2007
Constituency	Westmeath
Personal details
Born	(1956-08-01) 1 August 1956 Ballynacargy, County Westmeath
Nationality	Irish
Political party	Labour Party (1969–2011), (2013–)
Other political affiliations	Independent (2011–13)
Spouse(s)	Anne Fitzsimons
Children	3
Alma mater	University College Dublin, King's Inns

Willie Penrose (born 18 August 1956) is an Irish Labour Party politician. He has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Longford–Westmeath constituency since May 2007. He was Minister of State for Housing and Planning from March to November 2011, when he resigned his position and also the Labour Party whip over the closure of an army barracks.

Penrose was born in Ballynacargy, County Westmeath, and educated at St. Mary's CBS, Mullingar; Coláiste Mhuire, Mullingar; Multyfarnham Agricultural College; University College Dublin (UCD), and the King's Inns. At UCD, he studied Agricultural Science, graduating in 1979 with a bachelor's degree, following this one year later with a Master's degree in Agricultural Economics, and after graduation, with a colleague, formed an agricultural consultancy firm in Mullingar. In 1986, Penrose took up the position of advisor to the Minister of State at the Department of Fisheries, Forestry and Tourism, Michael Moynihan, resigning from the agricultural consultancy to do so. That same year, he commenced his studies to become a barrister, and he came first in his class in both his first and second years at King's Inns, from which institution he qualified as a barrister in 1990.

In 1969, at just 13 years of age, Penrose became secretary of the newly-reinstated Ballynacargy Labour Party branch. In 1984, he was co-opted on to Westmeath County Council, and a year later, he ran in the local elections, winning his seat in the Mullingar Lough Owel constituency by a margin of just six votes. In the 1991 local elections, he topped the poll in the Mullingar Rural Area.

He qualified as a barrister in 1990 before entering into national politics. At the 1992 general election he was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a TD for the Westmeath constituency. On that occasion the Labour Party won a record 33 Dáil seats, a feat that was surpassed at the 2011 General election.

In 2002, Penrose was a candidate for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party. Although he was part of a joint ticket with Pat Rabbitte, who won the leadership comfortably, he was narrowly defeated for the deputy leadership by Liz McManus, polling 1,636 votes to McManus' 1,728.

Minister of State (2011)

On 10 March 2011, he was appointed as Minister of State for Housing and Planning.

On 15 November 2011, he announced his resignation as Minister of State due to his opposition to the Government's decision to close Columb Barracks in Mullingar. Penrose said: "I understand and appreciate that significant efforts were made by my Labour colleagues in Government, who fully understood the depths of my feelings in this regard, to resolve this matter, but to no avail." He also resigned the Labour parliamentary party whip.

He rejoined the parliamentary Labour Party in October 2013.

External links

• Willie Penrose's page on the Labour Party website

Oireachtas
New constituency	Labour Party Teachta Dála for Westmeath 1992–2007	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Labour Party Teachta Dála for Longford–Westmeath 2007–present	Incumbent
Political offices
New office	Minister of State for Housing and Planning 2011	Succeeded by Jan O'Sullivan