Déirdre de Búrca 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. Déirdre 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.

Déirdre 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. Déirdre 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.

Déirdre 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 The majority of these re-zonings were subsequently withdrawn or significantly modified by the council.

Déirdre also legally challenged a decision of Wicklow County Council in February 2001 following the total privatisation of the county’s waste collection services by the council in the face of massive public opposition. Déirdre 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.

Déirdre 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 Dáil seats in the County. In August 2007 Déirdre was nominated to Seanad Éireann by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern following the Green Party’s entry into Government with Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats.

Déirdre was a member of the Green Party’s Parliamentary Party and also a very active member of Seanad Éireann from August 2007 – Feb 2010 when she resigned. She was her party’s spokesperson on European Affairs, Health & Children, Defence and the Gaeltacht. She 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 was also one of the Green Party’s main delegates on the National Forum on Europe since 2002.