Cllr Malcolm Byrne FIANNA FÁIL

ADDRESS: The Chase, Gorey OCCUPATION: Head of Communications, Higher Education Authority (HEA)

The graduate in law and arbitration from UCD is the favourite to take Mick Wallace’s vacant seat.

First elected to Gorey Town Council at the first count in 1999, at the age of 25, he topped the poll in Gorey in the 2004 local elections and was re-elected in 2009.

He was Gorey’s poll-topper in 2014 with 1,688 votes and was elected chairman of Wexford Co Council.

Byrne contested the 2016 General Election but lost out with an 8.5 per cent share of the first preference vote. In May of this year he stood for election on the double, contesting both the European Parliament and local elections. He failed to win a seat in Europe but performed beyond most observer’s expectations, with almost 70,000 first preference votes. He had a landslide victory in the reconfigured Gorey Municipal District election, topping the poll with over a quarter of the vote.

According to his FF profile, Malcolm Byrne is a long time campaigner for sustainable planning and development, youth participation in civic life, the arts, adequate policing for rural Ireland, support for equality and human rights as well as investment in education to underpin social and economic progress.

In an interview with this newspaper, the Fianna Fáil hopeful said that he never apologises for being ambitious:

‘I make no apologies and I shouldn’t have to about being ambitious because if you want to achieve anything you’ve to got to be. Just as the Wexford hurling team sets out to win the All Ireland, you’ve got to be ambitious’