Owen was first elected to Dublin County Council in 1979 for the Malahide local electoral area. She was later elected as a Fine Gael TD for the first time in 1981, serving until the 1987 election when she lost her seat. That year she became a member of the executive of Trócaire. She returned to Dáil Éireann following the 1989 general election. In 1993, she became Deputy leader of Fine Gael. The following year she became Minister for Justice, remaining in that post until 1997. She undertook a significant programme of criminal law reform.McNamara,Maedhbh. A womans's place is in the Cabinet:women ministers in Irish governments 1919-2019. Drogheda, Sea Dog Books,2020.ISBN 978-1-913275-06-8 Among the major changes she implemented was the referendum on bail in 1996, leading to the Bail Act,1997, which allows a court to refuse bail to those charged with a serious offence where it is considered necessary to prevent them committing a serious offence.ibid. 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.
