Toiréasa Ferris, 29, is a member of Kerry County Council(since 2003) and Tralee Town Council(2008).

She was educated at Ardfert NS, Gaelcholaiste Chiarrai, University of Limerick and Queens University, Belfast.

She is an Honours graduate from the University of Limerick where she completed a degree in Law and European Studies. Since her election she has also achieved a Masters Degree in International Human Rights and Criminal Justice from Queens. A fluent speaker of both Irish and Spanish, she spent seven months working in Mexico in 2001 where she involved herself with a local Workers Rights group. She has also worked with a leading International Human Rights Law firm in Chicago, Illinois.

She works full time as a Sinn Féin Councillor and is currently employed part-time as a Law Tutor at Tralee Community College.

She resides in Ardfert, outside Tralee, with her partner Patrick, a carpenter by trade and young daughter Liadain.