Jerry Buttimer
Jerry Buttimer (born 18 March 1967) is an Irish Fine Gael politician. As of January 2025, he serves as a Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht with special responsibility for community development, charities, the Gaeltacht and the islands, and at the Department of Transport with special responsibility for rural transport.
He is a Teachta Dála (TD) for Cork South-Central, elected at the 2024 general election, and previously from 2011 to 2016. He sat in the Seanad as a Senator for the Labour Panel from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2016 to 2024. He was Cathaoirleach (chair) of Seanad Éireann from December 2022 to November 2024 and Leas-Chathaoirleach (deputy chair) in July–August 2020. He also served as Leader of the Seanad from 2016 to 2020 and as Leader of Fine Gael in the Seanad during that period.
Buttimer was first elected to Cork City Council in 2004. He unsuccessfully contested Cork South-Central in 2007 and 2020, but was elected to the Seanad after those elections and later returned to the Dáil in 2024.
Early in life he studied for the priesthood at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, but left the path. He worked as a teacher and later as Director of Adult Education at Ballincollig Community School. He is married to Conchobar Ó Laoghaire, since December 2017. He publicly came out as gay in April 2012, becoming the first Fine Gael TD to do so, and has served as the first chair of Fine Gael LGBT.
In August 2020, he resigned as Leas-Chathaoirleach after attending a golf function that raised concerns about COVID-19 guidelines; his party suspended his whip, which was restored in January 2021.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 15:35 (CET).