He was Head of Communications with the Higher Education Authority until 2019, and has been Vice-President of the National Youth Council of Ireland. In 2014, he was named as one of the European 40 Under 40, in the European Young Leaders Programme.[4]
Political career
When first elected to Gorey Town Council on the first count in 1999, he was its youngest member at the age of 25.[1] He topped the poll again at the 2004 local elections.[1] He was first elected to Wexford County Council in 2009 for the Gorey local electoral area, and elected Chairman following his 2014 re-election.[8][9]
In January 2006, The Sun included Byrne's picture on the cover of its Irish edition beneath the headline "Bertie's FF Man in Gay Web Shame,"[10] revealing that Byrne had a profile on the dating website Gaydar.[10] Byrne responded at the time: "I have not, nor have I ever, done anything illegal and I am not a hypocrite in any way. My views on gay rights issues are well known. I am not married with four children or anything like that, so there is no suggestion of hypocrisy."[1] His family and political career suffered as a result and he was not selected for candidacy in the 2007 general election following this incident.[10] Byrne later described how it was a journalist from The Gorey Echo had first approached him: "The first few questions were about roads. Then the journalist said, 'Are you aware you have a profile on this dating website?'" When he confirmed that the profile was his, Byrne experienced a sleepless night before The Gorey Echo outed him locally: "I was ringing around people I knew and my parents were ringing around people … my grandmother didn't know and a lot of my extended family and my friends didn't know". Gorey Echo group editor Tom Mooney defended publication by saying he believed Byrne's behaviour to be "unfitting of a public representative".[6]
Byrne was elected as a TD at the 2019 Wexford by-election.[17] Andrew Bolger was co-opted to Byrne's seat on Wexford County Council following his election to the Dáil.[18] His maiden speech was about housing solutions and the need to address the challenges facing Generation Rent. In an interview he said he could envisage a United Ireland where the 12th of July and Saint Patrick's Day were public holidays and spoke about how Ireland needs to ensure Unionists feel at home in a new agreed state and that may mean addressing issues such as Ireland joining the Commonwealth.[19]
Byrne is openly gay. As of 2020, he is single and has described politics as "almost like an addiction", which makes relationships difficult.[6] He lives in Gorey.[6]