She is a sister of Mary Banotti and a grandniece of the Irish revolutionary leader Michael Collins.

She was educated at Dominican Convent, County Wicklow and University College Dublin (UCD) where she qualified as an industrial chemist.

Owen was first elected to Dublin County Council in 1979 for the Malahide local electoral area.

[2] Journalist Veronica Guerin was murdered in 1996 and in its aftermath, Owen introduced the highly successful Criminal Assets Bureau to crack down on organised crime.

In 2002, she became the first high-profile Fine Gael TD to lose her seat in Dublin North in the party's disastrous general election result.