First elected to Cork City Council in 2004 and again in 2009 when he served as the city's Lord Mayor, Dara Murphy (46) ran for Dáil Éireann for the first time in 2011 when he pipped running mate Pat Burton on the 11th and last count to take the final seat in Cork North Central. Married with three children, Murphy, who operated his own catering equipment supply business, was promoted to Minister of State for European Affairs and Data Protection in the Cabinet reshuffle of July 2014. However, Murphy's tenure as a Minister of State has not been without controversy, most notably in September 2015, when he was forced to publicly defend his decision to contact gardaí in Fermoy and ask them to drive him to Dublin Airport in a Garda car after his own car broke down.