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Minister Eamon Ryan was first elected to Dail Eireann in 2002. Prior to his appointment as Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, he was the Green Party spokesperson for Transport and Enterprise, Trade and Employment and opposition convenor on the Joint Oireachtas Committee for Communication, Marine and Natural Resources.
Before he was elected to the Dail he set up and ran two businesses, Irish Cycling Safaris and Belfield Bike shop. He was an active member and chairman of the Dublin Cycling Campaign, and from 1995 to 2002 he served on the Advisory Committee of the Dublin Transport Office.
Eamon is married to the writer Victoria White and they have four young children.

Senator Deirdre de Burca is originally from Loughlinstown, County Dublin. She attended Cabinteely Community School en then progressed to Carysfort Teacher Training College, Blackrock where she trained as a Primary School Teacher. She taught for three years and then returned to college to study psychology at UCD. She then worked with Rehab for over ten years as a psychologist and was a Rehabilitation Psychologist in Rehab’s vocational training centres for people with disabilities. Deirdre established the Camus community-based rehabilitation programme for young people who have experienced their first serious mental health difficulties. She also helped to set up Minds Matter, one of Ireland’s first patient-led groups which set out to lobby for reforms in the mental health services. She is a member of a wide range of interest groups including An Taisce, the Wicklow Planning Alliance, the Foundation for Sustainable Economics (Feasta), Sustainable Communities Ireland and the Peace & Neutrality Alliance.
Deirdre was first elected to Wicklow County Council in 1999. She was re-elected with a greatly increased mandate in the Local Elections of 2004, and was also one of the three Green Party Councillors to be elected onto Bray Town Council for the first time. Deirdre built a reputation for being a hard worker who is committed to public service over the 8-year period she spent as a local councillor. She was particularly interested in planning and waste management issues and worked closely with communities around County Wicklow to try to ensure that Local Development Plans for their areas met the real needs of these communities.
Deirdre achieved prominence during the drafting of the 2006-2011 Wicklow County Development Plan because she publicly challenged a number of late-night controversial zonings that were adopted by her fellow councillors. These re-zonings were the subject of much negative attention from the national media at the time. The majority of these re-zonings were subsequently withdrawn or significantly modified by the council.
Deirdre also legally challenged a decision of Wicklow County Council in February 2001. Following the total privatisation of the County’s waste collection services by Wicklow County Council in the face of massive public opposition. Deirdre received leave from the High Court to judicially review this decision. She was not successful in being granted the reliefs she sought. However, she did not have costs awarded against her as the judge in question ruled that her case had raised a number of important legal points.
Deirdre ran as a Green Party General Election candidate in Wicklow for the second time in June 2007. She achieved 7% of the vote, but failed to secure one of the five Dail seats in the County. In August 2007 Deirdre was nominated to Seanad Eireann by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern following the Green Party’s entry into Government with Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats.
Deirdre is currently a member of the Green Party’s Parliamentary Party and is also a very active member of Seanad Eireann. She is her party’s spokesperson on European Affairs, Health & Children, and Defence. She has played a prominent role in explaining the shift in her party’s thinking in relation to Europe which was reflected in the vote by 63% of the Green Party membership in January 2007 to support the Lisbon Treaty. She has also been one of the Green Party’s main delegates on the National Forum on Europe since 2002.