1. Phil Prendergast is an Irish former Labour Party politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament for the South constituency from 2011 to 2014, Leader of the Labour Party in the Seanad in 2011 and a Senator for the Labour Panel from 2007 to 2011.
Phil Prendergast was a midwife at South Tipperary General Hospital for more than 20 years, having trained in Waterford Regional Hospital.
Phil Prendergast is married to Ray Prendergast, a psychiatric nurse, and has two children.
Phil Prendergast is a former local branch officer with the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, on the executive board of which she served in 1994.
Phil Prendergast first contested an election to Dail Eireann in June 2001, when she stood on behalf of the WUAG in the Tipperary South by-election that followed the death of Theresa Ahearn; she polled 7,897 first preference votes.
Phil Prendergast was a Labour candidate at the 2007 general election in the Tipperary South constituency; she was unsuccessful, but was elected to the Seanad by the Labour Panel.
Phil Prendergast caused some controversy within the local Labour Party branch when she tried to nominate a family member to replace her on the council.
Previously a Labour spokesperson on the Older Person, Phil Prendergast served in the Seanad as a spokesperson on Health, Art and Sports, and Social and Family Affairs.
Phil Prendergast sat on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, and on the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee.
Phil Prendergast was involved in a controversy with the Labour Party leadership when she became the first member of the parliamentary party to call for the resignation of Health Minister James Reilly, following the announcement of the location of primary care health centres in the minister's own constituency.
Phil Prendergast lost her seat at the 2014 European Parliament election.