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DUBLIN CENTRAL HAS just got its newest TD after Daniel Ennis came out on top in the byelection.
Ennis won on the ninth count, after leading from the very first count on Saturday afternoon.
He’s taking the Dáil seat of former Fine Gael minister Paschal Donohoe, who left politics for a job at the World Bank.
Ennis, a Social Democrat, brings the party’s TD count to 12.
The father of two is from North Strand in the north inner city and he’s been a councillor for the area since 2024.
Announcing his candidacy for the byelection in December, Ennis said he practices “a politics of decency, solidarity and unity”.
He said he entered politics because of the “entrenched, intergenerational poverty and the State’s neglect” of the north inner city and its people.
Among his goals as a councillor were to work to eradicate derelict and vacant properties and create more social and affordable homes.
Ennis was previously a League of Ireland footballer, playing with Bohemians, Shelbourne, and Bray Wanderers.
He used to be an operations manager in a shopping centre in Tallaght, and a volunteer with East Wall Bessborough Football Club before entering politics three years ago.
He also worked in the constituency office of party colleague Gary Gannon TD.
“You can’t hate up close” was one of Ennis’s campaign slogans, and tackling hate towards migrants particularly is a pillar of his politics.
So when he heard of former taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s comments on immigration, he was quick to condemn them.
While canvassing on behalf of one of Ennis’s byelection opponents, John Stephens, Ahern was recorded saying there were “too many [migrants] coming in” and was particularly concerned about people from “the Congo” and Muslim communities.
Ennis called Ahern’s comments “absolutely vile” and said “language is important”.
In the wake of anti-immigration protests in East Wall in recent years, Ennis said he understood the local anger, stating that he saw those in a disenfranchised community getting hijacked by “hateful actors”.
Despite the positive end, Ennis’s campaign wasn’t without a hiccup.
After questions emerged online about his former employment earlier this month, his party released a statement saying Ennis was not required to make an official declaration of his involvement with a company whose director was fined over illegal cigarettes.
The party said Ennis was employed as a warehouse operations manager in the firm and was subsequently appointed company secretary in June 2021.
“He resigned as warehouse operations manager in June 2023 and was replaced as company secretary in November of that year.
“His employment with the company was not listed on his Dublin City Council disclosures because the position of company secretary was an unpaid role and he had left paid employment with the company more than 12 months before the disclosures were signed,” the statement from the party said.
According to a court report in The Irish Independent, Revenue officers received confidential information that cigarettes were being sold by the company without an Irish tax stamp and the shop was searched on May 2022.
Speaking to The Journal on the campaign trail in the week the story broke Ennis said he had no knowledge about the cigarettes and had resigned from any role in the company in 2023.
A win from Ennis means the Social Democrats will have two TDs in one constituency, a first for the party.
Asked why he thinks his campaign resonated so well with voters, Ennis said it was “listening to people” and “meeting them where they were”.
He said the experience has been “a bit mad”, but that he is taking it in his stride.
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