Although widely known in her political life by her maiden name, Maria Bailey used her married surname Bailey Ryan when she filed a lawsuit against a Dublin hotel.

The 43-year-old was first elected to the Dáil in 2016. She picked up 10,489 first preference votes in the election that year.

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She is one of three Fine Gael TDs in the four-seat Dún Laoghaire constituency.

Before becoming a TD, the mother of two was a county councillor for 12 years, representing the Killiney/Ballybrack ward on Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

Prior to that she worked as a member of ground staff at Aer Lingus.

Her father John Bailey, a former chairman of Dublin GAA’s county board, is also a councillor and is seeking re-election this week.

Ms Bailey is chairperson of the Oireachtas Housing Committee and says her areas of political interest include planning, economic development, housing and health.

She is an ally of Tánaiste Simon Coveney and supported him in the Fine Gael leadership race, which he lost to Leo Varadkar.

Ironically, the hotel she is suing, the Dean Hotel on Harcourt Street, Dublin, was used for a launch of policy priorities by Mr Coveney during the contest in 2017.

Ms Bailey is an avid runner but says this has been severely curtailed as a result of injuries sustained falling off a swing at the hotel.

She has suffered migraines since the age of 16 and has spoken on a number of occasions about managing the condition.

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