Kathy Sinnott - Public Office

Public Office

She was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for the South constituency at the 2004 European Parliament election. She campaigned on disability and education issues, euroscepticism and social conservatism.

She had stood previously at the 2002 general election for a seat in the Cork South–Central constituency, and narrowly losing the fifth and final seat to John Dennehy of Fianna Fáil. In the election count, she was initially ahead by 3 votes but lost by 6 votes after two recounts. She was an unsuccessful candidate at the subsequent Senate election in 2002 she had been nominated by 4 sitting Independent TDs, losing out by 3 votes to a Fine Gael Candidate. She required a high court judgement to allow her to run for the seanad on the Labour Panel.

She is a former co-chair of the European Parliament's Eurosceptic Independence/Democracy group. Sinnott was a member and Vice-President of the EUDemocrats – Alliance for a Europe of Democracies.

On 8 June 2009 Sinnott lost her seat in the European Parliament. She received more than 30% fewer votes than in the 2004 European Parliament election.

On September 21 2009 her son Kevin drowned in a swimming accident in Georgia, USA. He was a final year philosophy student at the Southern Catholic College in Dawsonville, Georgia.