Anne Colley

Colley was born in Dublin in 1951. She studied law at University College Dublin (UCD) and qualified as a solicitor. Her father George Colley, who was a senior Fianna Fáil politician, was closely aligned with Progressive Democrats (PD) founder Desmond O'Malley, in the anti-Charles Haughey wing of the Fianna Fáil party. Her grandfather Harry Colley, was also a Fianna Fáil TD.

She first entered national politics as one of 14 Progressive Democrats TDs elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1987 general election, the first election after the party was founded. She was elected for the Dublin South constituency. The party proved popular, surpassing the Labour Party, to become the third-biggest party in the Dáil.

Colley was appointed party spokesperson on Institutional Reform, Labour and the Public Service. In 1988, she became spokesperson on Justice. She lost her seat at the 1989 general election and retired from politics.

In 2006, she was appointed by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Michael McDowell, to chair a working group on civil unions in Ireland. The Options Paper on Cohabiting Couples (Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, 2006) became known as the Colley Report.