Elected as a TD on his first attempt in 2007, he has served in the Dáil since. He is the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on jobs, enterprise and innovation and the former spokesperson on justice, equality and defence. He was previously the Minister of State for Labour Affairs.

I am effective and hardworking, I believe in teamwork and co-operation to deliver progress and reform, and I am ambitious for Mayo and for Ireland.

My constituency needs jobs - we need to allow those who want to come back to Mayo the chance to do so by investing in locally based job producing projects.

In this Dáil I introduced a bill which would have led to a specific mandatory sentence for someone who was found guilty of assaulting an emergency worker.