Therese Ridge

Therese Ridge
Senator
In office September 1997 – June 2002
Constituency	Labour Panel
Personal details
Born	(1941-03-01)1 March 1941 Dublin,Ireland
Political party	Fine Gael(1985–2012)
Other political affiliations	Independent(2012–2014)
Education	Goldenbridge College, Dublin
Alma mater	St Patrick's College, Maynooth

Therese Ridge(born 1 March 1941) is an Irish politician fromClondalkin,County Dublin.Formerly a member ofFine Gael,she was anIndependentmember ofSouth Dublin County Councilfrom 2012 to 2014.

Early life

Born in Dublin, Ridge was educated at Goldenbridge College, Dublin and atSt Patrick's College, Maynooth,where she graduated with an MA. She worked as aMontessoriteacher and then as an external tutor at Maynooth Adult Education Department and at Stewarts Hospital inPalmerstown.

Political career

She was an elected member ofSouth Dublin County Councilfrom the county's establishment in 1994 to 2014, and was chair of the council from 1996 to 1997. She previously represented the same Clondalkin area on the formerDublin County Council,to which she was elected in 1985 and which she chaired from 1992 to 1993.

Ridge stood three times as aFine Gaelcandidate forDáil Éireann,but was unsuccessful on each occasion: inDublin South-Westat the1987 general election,inDublin Westat the1992 general electionand inDublin Mid-Westat the2002 general election.

She stood unsuccessfully at the 1989 and 1993 elections toSeanad Éireannby theLabour Panel,but won a seat at the 1997 election to the21st Seanad.She was defeated at the 2002 Seanad elections.

Mahon Tribunal

LobbyistFrank Dunlop,whose allegations of corruption in the rezoning of land inCounty Dublinwere based on his own involvement in much of the alleged wrongdoing, claimed in 2000 that he had paid 16 councillors involved in rezoning decisions, including that on theQuarryvalesite in west Dublin. Fine Gael's then leaderJohn Brutonestablished an internal inquiry into the allegations, which reported in May 2000 that while Ridge had received donations from developers (including two payments of £500 each from Dunlop), it was "satisfied that Ms. Ridge did not allow the payments which she received to influence her decision to vote on any of these three motions".

In November 2007, Dunlop told the tribunal had persuaded councillors to arrange the seating at a county council meeting to ensure that Fine Gael councillor Peter Brady could be prompted by Ridge to vote in favour of a motion on Quarryvale. Dunlop told the tribunal that he was in the public gallery at the time of the vote and heard Ridge say to her colleague "for, Peter, for" when the time came for him to cast his vote.

On 10 May 2012, Ridge lost the Fine Gael party whip as a result of the complete findings of theMahon Tribunalwhich found that she acted "entirely improperly" by accepting a donation of £1,000 cash from Frank Dunlop during the 1992 general election. On 6 July 2012, she resigned from the Fine Gael party. She said that she was not appealing against the ruling of the party disciplinary committee, and was leaving because she could not get fair procedures.