Eoghan Murphy


Eoghan Murphy is an Irish Fine Gael politician who has been a Teachta Dála for the Dublin Bay South constituency since 2016, and previously from 2011 to 2016 for the Dublin South-East constituency. He served as Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government from June 2017 to June 2020, and was Minister of State at the Department of Finance from 2016 to 2017.

Life and career

Murphy attended St Michael's College. He went on to study at University College Dublin, and King's College London.
Prior to entering politics, Murphy worked in international arms control, specifically in the area of nuclear weapons disarmament. He has worked for the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva, Switzerland, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Dublin, and before his election to Dublin City Council, he was working as a speechwriter for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization in Vienna, Austria. In a 2015 Dáil debate on Irish neutrality, Murphy supported ending the "triple lock" requirement for Irish military deployment to have United Nations Security Council support, on the ground that it makes Ireland subject to Russia's veto power.
Murphy was elected to Dublin City Council at the 2009 local elections for the local electoral area of Pembroke–Rathmines. He vacated his council seat upon election to the Dáil at the 2011 general election. In the 31st Dáil, he sat on the Public Accounts Committee and the Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis.
After the 2016 general election, Murphy was appointed as Minister of State for Financial Services, eGovernment and Public Procurement at the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform.
Following Leo Varadkar's appointment as Taoiseach, Murphy was promoted to the cabinet, as Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government in June 2017. On 25 September 2018, Murphy survived a motion of no confidence which had been tabled by Sinn Féin. The motion was defeated by 59 to 49 votes. In December 2019, another motion of no confidence was tabled against Murphy, this time by the Social Democrats. The motion was defeated by 59 votes to 56.