A
dairy farmer by profession, he first became involved in national politics in 1997, when he was elected at the
1997 general election to
Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil TD. Moynihan's election caused somewhat of a shock because he succeeded in unseating sitting
Fine Gael TD
Frank Crowley, in what had been one of Fine Gael's strongest constituencies, where they had held more seats than
Fianna Fáil. At the 1997 general election, another candidate, Donal Howard, gained votes in the Kanturk, Banteer, and Kilcorney areas of the constituency; this reduced the share of votes obtained by Frank Crowley, and contributed to his loss of his seat. Moynihan was chair of the
Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Science from 2004 to 2007. He served as chair of
Ógra Fianna Fáil, the youth wing of the party, until 2005. He topped the poll at the
2002 general election and was re-elected at the
2007,
2011,
2016 and
2020 general elections. He has served as the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on Agriculture and Food from 2011 to 2012, spokesperson on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources from 2012 to 2016 and
Opposition Chief Whip from 2016 to 2020. At the
2024 general election, Moynihan was re-elected to the Dáil. On 29 January 2025, he was appointed as
Minister of State at the Department of Education and Youth. ==References==