Clune was first elected to
Dáil Éireann at the
1997 general election succeeding her father,
Peter Barry who was retiring. Her grandfather
Anthony Barry had also been a TD, making her a third generation member of the Dáil. In the Dáil, she was appointed Fine Gael front bench spokesperson on Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands in June 2000 and spokesperson on Environmental and Consumer Affairs from February 2001. She lost her seat at the
2002 general election. She also contested the 2002 elections to the
22nd Seanad on the
Industrial and Commercial Panel, but was unsuccessful. She was a member of
Cork City Council from 1999 to 2007 and became the 68th
Lord Mayor of Cork on 27 June 2005. Clune regained her Dáil seat at the
2007 general election. She was appointed deputy spokesperson on Enterprise with special responsibility for Innovation from 2007 to 2010. In July 2010, she was appointed as party spokesperson on Innovation and Research. She lost her seat at the
2011 general election to party colleague
Jerry Buttimer. where she served as Fine Gael Seanad spokesperson on Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation. At the
2014 European Parliament election, she was elected for the
South constituency. She was re-elected at the
2019 European Parliament election for South but took the fifth and final
Brexit seat, so she did not take her seat until after the
United Kingdom left the
European Union on 31 January 2020. On 15 November 2023, Clune announced that she would not contest the
2024 European Parliament election. ==See also==