Honorific-Prefix: | Senator |
Office: | Senator |
Term Start: | 29 June 2020 |
Constituency: | Industrial and Commercial Panel |
Birth Date: | 13 January 1970 |
Birth Place: | Portlaoise, County Laois, Ireland |
Nationality: | Irish |
Party: | Labour Party |
Father: | Jack Wall |
Alma Mater: | Institute of Technology, Carlow |
Mark Wall (born 13 January 1970) is an Irish Labour Party politician who has served as a Senator for the Industrial and Commercial Panel since April 2020.[1]
Wall attended Churchtown national school and Scoil Eoin in Athy and later received a Diploma in Marketing and Business Studies from I.T. Carlow
His father, Jack Wall was a Senator from 1993 to 1997 and TD from 1997 to 2016.[2]
He was first elected to Kildare County Council at the 2009 Kildare County Council election and additionally to Athy Town Council at the same time.[3] Wall served as Deputy Mayor of Athy in 2012, Mayor of Athy in 2012–2013, Mayor of Kildare in 2013-2014 and was elected Cathaoirleach of Athy Municipal District in 2015. Wall has served as a board member of Scoil Lorcain Castledermot, Kildare Centre for the Unemployed, Churchtown Castlemitchell Community Development Association, Athy Heritage Company and The Willow Project.[4]
He was an unsuccessful candidate for Kildare South at the 2016 and 2020[5] general elections, but was elected to the Seanad in 2020. Mark Leigh was co-opted to Wall's seat on Kildare County Council following his election to the Seanad.[6]
During his time in the Seanad, Wall has spoken about the issue of gambling addiction and repeatedly raised the issue.[7] In 2021, Wall introduced a bill to ban gambling advertisements, stating that adequate supports should be "in place to help those suffering from (gambling) addiction".[8] A survey conducted by Wall in 2021 found that three in every four Irish people knew someone with a gambling addiction, with Wall stating this was "hugely concerning".[9]