James Lawless TD (43) was first elected for Fianna Fáil at the last general election in 2016, having been a councillor for the two years prior to that. He studied law at the Kings Inns, as well as having degrees in maths and computer science from TCD. He worked in systems analysis before politics.

Unsurprisingly, he has been his party’s spokesperson on science, technology, and research and development for the past four years.

He is married with two daughters .