Barry Heneghan is a 27-year-old independent TD for Dublin Bay North, elected in the 2024 Irish general election on his first attempt.  

A graduate from both Belvedere college and DCU, Heneghan graduated with a master’s in mechanical engineering focusing on sustainable energy systems.  

In an interview with The City, Heneghan discussed his political journey, his aspirations for the rest of his current tenure and his decision to support the Government as an independent. 

“I saw how slow things could be in politics and I thought that I could speed up this process. My friend’s mother was diagnosed with cancer, and I made a portrait of Che Guevara in the style of Jim Fitzpatrick. When I brought it to her, by chance Finian McGrath was visiting and asked who made the portrait as he wanted one. This was around a month before the local elections (2024), and we just got to chatting, he mentioned that Damien O’Farrell was thinking of retiring, so there was the option of getting both their backing (McGrath and O’Farrell), we talked on key points of focus and he asked if I was willing to run with his help,” said Heneghan.  

“-I always thought that I would be good for it, and then we ran a 4-week campaign ending up getting 2,450 votes (2,452), the highest that any independent got in the Dublin local election at that time. The general election was also looming, so there was an option there. Some people did say it was a bit cheeky to go straight for it, but if you think that you can represent the people the best, then you give them that option. I was hoping I could get the fifth seat and I ended up getting the fourth, but it will be a different game the next time if you look at the transfers I got.”

Discussing his first year in office, Heneghan offered insights into the juggling act between working and speaking in the Dáil, as well as working with and for his constituents in the sprawling Dublin Bay North area.  

“The days and weeks are jam packed. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays we’re in here (Dáil Éireann) and then Mondays and Fridays were doing a lot of stuff in the constituency. I’m launching my clinics, were trying to get 7 locations in north Dublin. Initially I had an office for my first 8 months, but it had no signage, didn’t have my name you know compared to down the country, TDs would have their name for their constituency office.” 

“For my constituency I want to have clinics in Baldoyle, Howth, Darndale, Coolock, Artane, Clontarf, Sutton, Kilbarrack, and Marino. If I can rotate clinics Mondays and Fridays and maybe a Saturday every so often up in Belmayne, it’s good to get people to meet you one on one. One thing I would not like in four years’ time when I’m going for re-election is for someone to say, “oh I never seen you”, so I want to be more visible. Social media is one thing (for visibility), but there’s an elderly cohort that wouldn’t see that, some people don’t have that access, and that’s what these clinics are for.”  

Dublin Bay North’s demographical profile shows that Heneghan is correct in his aim for more visibility for older people, as 17.1% of voters are over 65, compared to the state average of 13.4%. Heneghan also named all of Dublin Bay North’s major settlements (Except Fairview) in his list for future clinics in the area, a sign of his knowledge of the area and his commitment to inclusion for the entire community. 

“As long as I can continue to help people and think that my office and my team would offer people in north Dublin the best option to represent them, then I would seek re-election, or renewing my contract. I like to say that politics is like a contract, so you can see what I’m trying to do, be it climate change, energy, housing, childcare, disabilities, gaeilge, Dublin Bay itself, and if I can go back to people and say ‘well I done this, I helped with this’, if you don’t break your contract of the things you set out to do then people will be happy with you. In turn, hopefully they don’t break the contract for you.”- 

“It’s always risky as a Government-supporting independent, people won’t always be happy with it, but when you see key issues that I wanted done being done, for example Gaelcholáiste Reachrann’s permanent building just went to tender, and while every TD will claim ownership, it was a joint achievement in the chamber and one of my key priorities. People elected me to get as much as possible done, this is how you get as much as possible done.” 

“There are some issues that the Government do that I don’t agree with, but, I would rather have an ear to the ministers, have access to their offices, and be able to work with them. We had a meeting with the housing minister, before the housing plan that was just announced, where I expressed my key issues for disabilities, for the accessibility officer for Dublin City Council, and for the modular homes and flats. If I had of went in with the opposition, I wouldn’t have had that meeting, I wouldn’t be able to help people who get on to me. I had a decision, ‘do I want a long political career, sounding good, but getting nothing done, or the possibility of not getting re-elected, but being as affective as possible and having a short political career’ and I preferred the latter.”- 

“The social economics of the constituency vary a lot, we have areas that are severely under pressure in terms of service, and people are looking for those services. One of the things I would love to see would be better support for youth who have left school, the crown paints site which as we know now is not going to be used as an IPAS centre, I would want even half of that to be for mental health and disabilities and also to have maybe the other half as a trade school, people who aren’t suited for school, can be the perfect mind for trades, these young people who may leave school early, then fall into the wrong side of life, but if you give the them support at the start of their life and say ‘hey there’s two roads you can go down, either the wrong road or you can go down a road where you can really make a good life for yourself’, you know the country already has a lack of tradesmen and women, if we can show people that they can go into these trades, this would be something I’d love to see for North Dublin.”-