Verona Murphy FINE GAEL

ADDRESS: Ramsgrange, Co Wexford OCCUPATION: President of the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA). Managing Director, DruMur Transport

Very much a self-starter, the Fine Gael candidate comes from a family of eleven children. She left school at the age of 16, emigrating to the UK, but returned aged 18 and became involved in the haulage industry as a sole trader.

In 1992, she became a mother and retrained as a beautician and an electrologist while rearing her daughter at home in tandem with running her haulage business. Murphy went back to education to complete her Leaving Cert at the age of 35 and then moved on to study law, attaining a BA in Law from IT Carlow in 2010.

As well as fulfilling her role as President of the IRHA, she operates DruMur Transport Limited with partner and co-director Joe Druhan, specialising in refrigerated transport to and from Italy.

She says she threw her hat in the ring as an election candidate as she believes that ‘as a legislator I can make a difference on the ground in Wexford and nationally’.

In the run-up to the by-election she has become embroiled in controversy over comments linking migrants coming into Ireland to terror group ISIS in this newspaper and elsewhere.

In an interview in this newspaper, the Fine Gael candidate said: ‘I’m a straight talker. I may come across as often being in bad humour. Humours don’t bother me. Bulls**t bothers me because I don’t suffer fools gladly. As long as it makes sense I have no difficulty, but don’t be trying to bulls**t me and I’ve always been like that in business, as in everything else.’