Profile: Dessie Ellis (SF)

Sinn Féin’s transport and housing spokesman Dessie Ellis (63) was first elected to the Dáil in 2011, having served as a Dublin city councillor for 12 years. He has consistently raised housing and homelessness issues, planning and building regulation reform. He also highlighted domestic abuse and mental health issues. A former republican prisoner, he was convicted of possession of explosives in 1983 and sentenced to 10 years. In 1990 he went on hunger strike in protest at attempts to extradite him to Britain. Extradited on the 37th day of his hunger strike, he was found not guilty by a London jury in 1991. A former TV repair business owner, he was born and lives in Finglas, where he is a member of the joint policing committee and the Finglas/Cabra drugs taskforce.