Election 2020: Brendan Griffin (Fine Gael)

Kerry – Elected sixth count

Brendan Griffin: was first elected to the Dáil in 2011.

Brendan Griffin: was first elected to the Dáil in 2011.

 

Fine Gael’s Brendan Griffin was first elected as a TD in 2011, after serving in Kerry County Council for three years.

The 37-year-old served as the minister of state for transport, tourism and sport in the 32nd Dáil.

In his last term, he served on a number of Oireachtas committees including transport, tourism and sport and Irish Language, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, of which he was the chairman.

Prior to becoming a full-time public representative, he previously worked as a parliamentary assistant to Jimmy Deenihan, and as a publican

He is married to Róisín and lives in the parish of Keel, on the foothills of the Sliabh Mish Mountains on the Dingle Peninsula.

Early in his political career, he was the subject of controversy for hiring his wife Róisín as his secretarial assistant and his brother Tommy Griffin as his parliamentary assistant, without holding interviews for the positions.

In 2012, he donated half of his salary to pay for a third teacher in a small, rural Kerry school.