EVERY WEEKEND, OUR political team casts an eye over the events inside and outside Leinster House that have people talking.
It was back to business this week for TDs and senators, as the conversation over private maternity care rumbled on and a heated debate continued over the upcoming Nations League fixtures against Israel.
This week, we ventured outside the realms of Leinster House to find some contenders (but they are all still political, don’t worry).
So, here are our political winners and losers from the week that was:
The three winners this week are….
1. Jennifer Carroll MacNeill
After last week’s heated row over the provision of private maternity care by some consultants on public-only contracts in Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital, Health Minister Jennifer Carroll Mac Neill was victorious in getting the hospital’s board to back down.
On Monday, the hospital agreed that its consultants on public-only contracts will no longer take on private care.
This came after the HSE threatened to trigger a process that could have resulted in a funding cut to the hospital.
Welcoming the climb down from the hospital, MacNeill said:
“All of us, together, can now focus on continuing to deliver the very best care for all women and their babies and implement reforms that strengthen our public health service for all.”
Attention now turns to those reforms and how the public system can be improved to better serve women, particularly when it comes to continuity of care.
2. Jason Poole
We were going to put Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan on our winners list this week for finally bringing plans for a domestic violence register to cabinet, but then we realised it made more sense to recognise the person who has been tirelessly campaigning for the law.
“Jennie’s Law” is named after Jennifer Poole, who was murdered by her ex-partner in 2021.
Since her death, Jennie’s brother Jason has been ferociously campaigning for the introduction of a register that would help other women know if a new partner has a violent past.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme earlier this week, Poole said part of the reason his family has campaigned so hard for this since 2022 is that they don’t want any other family to go through what they have endured.
He said the time it has taken to get the proposed law to this stage has been “very frustrating” and has taken a toll on his family.
“We went through three justice ministers and two governments. We had been very close before… but we know we’re at the final hurdle now, and the next couple of weeks is really, really crucial.”
Poole said that while it’s “too late” for his sister, this piece of legislation will be her legacy.
“[This is] for the failures of the system that Jennifer had to endure, but also for the victims who are listening to this, because they’re the people who are going to be protected.”
3. British Ambassador Kara Owen
British Ambassador to Ireland Kara Owen hosted a soirée in her house to celebrate King Charles’ birthday.
There was Pimms, Guinness and wine flowing and some well-known faces in the crowd, including RTÉ’s Kevin Bakhurst, former ministers Simon Coveney and Charlie Flanagan, and also some current sitting TDs.
But we’re giving the nod to the ambassador this week for poking fun at an incident that took place in last year, when Minister Darragh O’Brien, the VIP guest at the annual summer garden party, forgot the name of the then-ambassador Paul Johnston.
As noted by the Irish Times’ Miriam Lord last year:
“Everyone else was mortified for Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien, who sailed through most of his speech oblivious to the fact that he kept calling his host “Jonathan”.
“He did it four times before his audience snapped and shouted at him to stop.”
Addressing the crowd on Thursday night, Ambassador Owen said:
“I would like to pay tribute to my predecessor as ambassador, ‘Jonathan’…”. Laughter erupted.
The VIP guest this year was Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee. In her opening speech at the event, she also poked fun at O’Brien, stating that she spoke to a government colleague about her speech and asked for any tips.
McEntee said they replied: “Just get the bloody names right.”
It was all in the spirit of good fun, though. O’Brien doesn’t appear to have caused much damage to UK-Ireland relations over last year’s faux pas. Instead, the British ambassador, who speaks a cúpla focal, said she’s learned since moving to Ireland that the more you love someone here, the greater the slagging.
She remarked that Ireland must really love Britain given the level of slagging the Brits get. We like someone who can have the craic and doesn’t take it all too seriously, so the ambassador is a winner for us this week.
The 3 losers this week are…
1. Charlie McConalogue and Timmy Dooley
Junior ministers Charlie McConalogue and Timmy Dooley were caught out in the Dáil this week giving word-for-word the same speech during a debate on the Ireland versus Israel game.
The Social Democrats quickly jumped on it and mocked up a video showing the two ministers reading out the speech.
Many of these speeches are written by civil servants in the department, with one source stating that they are usually read over and tweaked slightly to ensure that such issues don’t arise, and ministers don’t look like they are copying each other’s homework, but something must have gone wrong this time around. Not a great look.
2. Malcolm Byrne
Fianna Fáil’s Malcolm Byrne has been replaced by TD Naoise Ó Cearúil as chairman of the Oireachtas committee on artificial intelligence.
Byrne was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving two weeks ago and stepped down from the chair last week. He has spoken out since to say he will face any further consequences that come his way. An investigation by gardaí is ongoing.
Fianna Fáil TD Shane Moynihan will replace Ó Cearúil in his former role as chairman of the committee on the Irish language, the Gaeltacht and the Irish-speaking community.
What do you make of the chosen winners and losers this week?
Tell us in the comments who your winners and losers are this week.