Thomas Byrne T.D.

Thomas Byrne is Minister of State at both the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and at the Department of Education, with responsibility for Sport, Physical Education and the Gaeltacht.

Minister Byrne represents the Meath East constituency in Dáil Éireann and has served as a member of the Houses of the Oireachtas since 2007.

From July 2020 until December 2022, Minister Byrne served as Minister of State for European Affairs at the Department of An Taoiseach and at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

In his role as Minister of State for European Affairs, Minister Byrne engaged extensively with his EU counterparts and often took a lead role, on behalf of the Irish Government, on topics such as Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic response and EU enlargement.

Minister Byrne also represented Ireland at various junctures at the United Nations and the United Nations Security Council during Ireland’s membership of the Security Council (2021-2022). During Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of Europe (May-November 2022), Minister Byrne worked with fellow Council of Europe partners to confront the challenges of the war in Ukraine and to promote the protection of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

As Minister of State for Sport and Physical Education, Minister Byrne has advocated strongly for measures which boost participation levels in Ireland and has promoted a “Sport for All” approach built on fairness and accessibility. Since his appointment, Minister Byrne has also introduced new measures to support the participation of women in sport, at all levels.

Minister Byrne is a fluent Irish speaker and in April 2024, he was appointed as Minister of State for the Gaeltacht, in addition to his existing responsibilities.

Minister Byrne studied law at Trinity College, Dublin and subsequently practiced as a solicitor in the area of EU and competition law at McCann FitzGerald and later practiced law locally. The Minister is a qualified Attorney-at-Law in New York State.

Thomas is married to Ann and they have 3 children together. His family are very involved locally in sport. In addition to being a fluent Irish speaker, he is proficient in both French and Italian.