Mairead McGuinness

McGuinness was the first female graduate of University College Dublin's Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural economics in 1980. In 1984, she completed a diploma in accounting and finance and went on to a career in a number of media outlets before entering politics in 2004. She worked as a researcher on The Late Late Show, as a presenter on RTÉ's Ear to the Ground and Celebrity Farm, a journalist with the Irish Farmers Journal and editor of the Irish Independent's farming supplement.

In early 2004, McGuiness declared her intention to seek a nomination for the European Parliament election for Fine Gael. This followed speculation linking her to a similar move for the Progressive Democrats. At the selection convention in February 2004, she was selected to run alongside Avril Doyle. This proved controversial, as it was widely expected that Fine Gael could win only one of the three seats in the East constituency. However, a stronger than expected performance from Fine Gael in the election saw both women being elected.

McGuinness has been appointed to serve on several European Parliament committees, including the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and the delegation for relations with Australia and New Zealand. McGuinness is a substitute member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the Committee on Petitions and the delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China.

She was a Fine Gael candidate for the Louth constituency at the 2007 general election but was not elected. She was re-elected on the first count at the 2009 European election, topping the poll with 25.7% of the first preference votes.

In April 2011, McGuiness announced that she wished to run for President of Ireland and would seek the Fine Gael party nomination for the 2011 presidential election. In July 2011, she was defeated for the nomination by Gay Mitchell.

At the 2014 European election she was re-elected to the European Parliament for the new Midlands–North-West constituency.

In July 2014 McGuiness was elected Vice President of the European Parliament; she secured an absolute majority to go through in the first round of voting by secret ballot. Under the leadership of President Martin Schulz, she oversees the parliament’s information policy, press and citizens relations. In addition, she serves as chairwoman of the Working Group on Information and Communication Policy and as co-chair of the Inter-Institutional Group on Communication.

In addition to her committee assignments and duties as Vice President, McGuiness is a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals.

In November 2016, One Voice For Languages welcomed McGuiness as their patron.

Also in November 2016, McGuinness officially announced her candidacy for the office of President of the European Parliament. Instead, Italian MEP and former European commissioner Antonio Tajani was elected as the EPP group’s nominee to replace incumbent president Martin Schulz; McGuiness received the second highest number of votes.