Ciarán Cuffe, Irish politician who has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Ireland for the Dublin constituency since July 2019, is born in Shankill, Dublin, on April 3, 1963. He is a member of the Green Party, part of the European Green Party. He previously serves as a Minister of State from 2010 to 2011. He is a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dún Laoghaire constituency from 2002 to 2011.

Cuffe is the son of Luan Peter Cuffe and Patricia Sistine Skakel. His father, who trains at Harvard University under Walter Gropius, is an architect who was involved in town planning for Dún Laoghaire and Wicklow before taking over his brother-in-law’s architectural practice. Through his mother, he is a grandson of George Skakel, a founder of Great Lakes Carbon Corporation, and a nephew of Ethel Skakel Kennedy. His cousins include the children of Ethel and Robert F. Kennedy. His granduncle was the Fianna Fáil TD Patrick Little, and his great-grandfather, Philip Francis Little, was the first Premier of Newfoundland in 1854. He is a member of the Dublin Cycling Campaign and has cycled coast-to-coast across the United States.

Cuffe attends the Children’s House Montessori School in Stillorgan, Gonzaga College in Ranelagh, the University of Maine at Orono, University College Dublin (UCD), and the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. He has degrees in architecture and urban planning from UCD. He teaches a master’s programme in urban regeneration and development at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), Bolton Street. In 2019, he completes a Master of Science in cities at the London School of Economics (LSE).

Cuffe joins the Green Party in 1982, and campaigns with Students Against the Destruction of Dublin (SADD) in the 1980s. He is twice elected to Dublin City Council, in 1991 and 1999, for the South Inner City electoral area. In 1996, he launches a free bikes scheme in which bicycles are placed around Dublin city centre for use by the public.

Cuffe is an unsuccessful candidate for the Dublin Central constituency at the 1997 Irish general election but is elected to the Dáil Éireann at the 2002 Irish general election for the Dún Laoghaire constituency.

In June 2003, Cuffe steps down as the Green Party’s environment spokesperson after it is revealed that he held shares worth $70,000 in a number of oil exploration companies which he had inherited when his late mother had left him $1.3 million in her will. He is re-elected at the 2007 Irish general election.

Following the 2007 election, the Green Party forms a coalition government with two other political parties and a number of independent TDs. Just after the election, on May 28, 2007, Cuffe writes in his blog: “A deal with Fianna Fáil would be a deal with the Devil. We would be spat out after 5 years and decimated as a party.” He loses his seat at the 2011 Irish general election.

On March 23, 2010, as part of a reshuffle, Cuffe is appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, at the Department of Transport and at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, with special responsibility for Horticulture, Sustainable Travel, and Planning and Heritage.

While Cuffe is minister, the Oireachtas enacts the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2010 to address land-use planning failures and over-zoning of development land. The legislation reforms the way development plans and local area plans are made and, for the first time in Irish legislation, includes a definition of Anthropogenic Climate Change and required energy use to be taken into account in planning decisions. He publishes the Climate Change Response Bill 2010, and an update of the National Spatial Strategy. He is head of the Irish delegation at the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancún, Mexico.

Cuffe promotes healthy eating for children, school gardens and local markets. He publishes bills to address climate change, noise pollution, and heritage protection. In January 2011, he launches a new policy of allowing bicycles on off-peak Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) trains.

Cuffe resigns as Minister of State on January 23, 2011, when the Green Party withdraws from government.

At the 2014 Irish local elections, Cuffe is elected to Dublin City Council for Dublin North Inner City area, on the 13th count. He is appointed chairperson for the Dublin City Council Transportation Committee in 2014. As a member of the Central Area Committee for Dublin City Council, he works to provide a site for the Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire primary school on Dominick Street in 2017. He introduces 30 km/h speed limits to residential and school areas of Dublin and also advocates for a car-free College Green. He calls for an increase in affordable housing in Dublin, specifically for people with different incomes. Speaking on the Strategic Development Zone in the Dublin Docklands, he states, “We have seen a lot of cranes in the Docklands but not a lot of homes. Particularly affordable homes.” He proposes a Motion declaring a Climate Emergency which is approved at a meeting of the Council on May 13, 2019.

Cuffe is selected as the Green Party candidate for the Dublin constituency at the 2019 European Parliament elections. He tops the poll, receiving 63,849 votes and is elected as an MEP on the 13th count, with 17.54% first preference votes. He is also re-elected to Dublin City Council, but due to the prohibition on a dual mandate, this seat is co-opted to fellow Green Party member Janet Horner.

Cuffe is a member of the European Parliament Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) and is the Coordinator of the Greens-European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA). He is also a member of the European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), and has written an initiative report, The Cuffe Report, on maximising the Energy Efficiency of the EU building stock (2020/2070). In 2022, he is appointed rapporteur on the directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD).

Cuffe is President of the European Forum for Renewable Energy Sources (EUFORES), a cross-party European parliamentary network gathering members of European, regional and national parliaments of the EU, and works to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency.

In June 2023, Cuffe is the recipient of the Energy, Science and Research Award at The Parliament Magazine‘s annual MEP Awards.