he was an unsuccessful candidate in the dublin north-central constituency at the 1992 and 1997 general elections. he was elected to dublin city council in 1999, with the second-highest vote in the clontarf local electoral area. he was first elected to dáil éireann at the 2002 general election, where he stood as an independent health alliance candidate in the dublin north-central constituency. he joined the technical group, established to ensure dáil speaking time for independent tds. in march 2003, due to being a dual mandate td, he gave up his dublin city council seat to ger drogan, who later was replaced by fintan cassidy, who failed to get elected in the subsequent 2004 local elections.