The youngest member of Dáil Éireann when elected in 2020 aged 22, James O’Connor’s youth did not cow his willingness to criticise colleagues loudly.

At times a vocal critic of party leader Micheál Martin, who he once interned with, Fianna Fáil’s transport spokesperson threatened to quit the parliamentary party in 2021 after claiming he was “lied to” about funding road projects in his constituency. He has now been re-elected for the party.

Mr O’Connor was first elected to Cork County Council for Midleton in 2019. He then became the third youngest Fianna Fáil TD ever in 2020 when he won the fourth seat in Cork East with 12.9 per cent of first preference votes.

Mr O’Connor (27) is from a farming family in Youghal. His mother is a food scientist and his father is a dairy farmer.

Aged 14, Mr O’Connor successfully lobbied then minister for transport Leo Varadkar to make public transport fares more child-friendly when with Comhairle na nÓg.