John Lahart

John Lahart is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South-West constituency since the 2016 general election.

Early life Lahart is from Ballyroan, County Dublin where he was educated at Scoil an Spiorad Naomhin Lahart also received a master's degree from Mater Dei in 1996. From 1992 to 1994 and from 2000 to 2007, Lahart was a special adviser to Tom Kitt, the Fianna Fáil TD for Dublin South.

In October 2014, Lahart was the unsuccessful Fianna Fáil candidate in the Dublin South-West by-election, winning only 8.6% of the first-preference votes (FPV). He was seen as having fought a good campaign, and performed well in two televised debates. Lahart described the challenge of getting known in the constituency, and in 2015 Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin explained the by-election as part of a medium term plan of building a "platform" for the 2016 general election.

At the 2016 general election, Lahart topped the poll with 14.3% of the FPV. He was the first candidate to be elected, on the 11th count, becoming Dublin South-West's first Fianna Fáil TD since the defeat of both Charlie O'Connor and Conor Lenihan at the 2011 general election.

In May 2016, he was appointed to the Fianna Fáil Front Bench by the leader of the Opposition Micheál Martin as opposition spokesperson for Dublin, replacing Darragh O'Brien.

At the 2020 general election, he won 8.1% of the first-preference votes, and was re-elected on the eleventh count, without reaching the quota. In June 2020, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party negotiated a deal to form a coalition government, and Lahart was tipped as a possible Minister of State. However, he opposed the programme for government, and when the new government was formed, he was not one of the eight Fianna Fáil TDs to be appointed as Minister of State.

In July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he became the first TD to wear a face mask in the Dáil chamber. Lahart was a member of the cross-party Oireachtas Friends of Israel group in the Oireachtas, before resigning from the group in 2024.

Following the 2023 Electoral Commission review, there were boundary adjustments ahead of the 2024 general election, with parts of the constituency transferred elsewhere to rebalance populations in adherence with the Constitution of Ireland.

At the 2024 general election, Lahart was re-elected to the Dáil. He was subsequently appointed Cathaoirleach of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade. In this role, Deputy Lahart chaired the cross-party Joint Committee that recommended the inclusion of both goods and services in the Occupied Territories Bill.