Jan O'Sullivan (; born 6 December 1950) is a former Irish Labour Party politician who served as Minister for Education and Skills from 2014 to 2016 and as a Minister of State from 2011 to 2014. She served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Limerick City constituency from 2011 to 2020, and previously from 1998 to 2011 for the Limerick East constituency. Personal life O'Sullivan was born in Clonlara, County Clare, in 1950. She was educated at Villiers Secondary School, Limerick, where her father was a journalist. After graduating from Trinity College Dublin, she took a Higher Diploma in Education at University College Cork. After working as a teacher for a short period of time, she studied as a Montessori teacher while living in Canada. After returning to Ireland, in the late 1970s, O'Sullivan helped to run Limerick's family planning clinic. A member of the Church of Ireland, she married Paul O'Sullivan, a Catholic and a GP; they have one daughter and one son. She spent time at home while having her children and once they were in school she ran a playgroup in the mornings, spent time with the children in the afternoon and did political work in the evenings. Political career Democratic Socialist: 1982–1990 In 1982, O'Sullivan joined the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP), a small party founded by Limerick TD Jim Kemmy, who had previously been a members of the Labour Party. There had been no political tradition in her family – her parents had supported different parties – and her choice of party was based on her support for Kemmy's anti-nationalist stance on Northern Ireland, and his advocacy of family planning services and a pro-choice approach to abortion. Family planning was deeply controversial in Ireland from the 1970s to the 1990s, particularly in Limerick, where Kemmy had lost his Dáil seat at the November 1982 general election, after being denounced by the Catholic Church for his opposition to the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland. Those such as O'Sullivan who were involved in the family planning services which Kemmy had helped found were labelled "Kemmy's Femmies". O'Sullivan was elected to Limerick City Council in 1985, she also served as a member of the Mid-Western Health Board from 1991 to 2003. Labour: 1990s O'Sullivan joined the Labour Party when the DSP merged with Labour in 1990, having been one of the DSP's negotiators in the merger