Christina Finn
EVERY WEEKEND, OUR political team casts an eye over the events inside and outside Leinster House that have people talking.
The byelection fallout continues, with big questions being asked about what the results mean. There are new jobs all round and some politicians have been speaking about some very personal experiences.
So, here are our political winners and losers from the week that was:
The four winners of the week are…
1. Seán Kyne and Daniel Ennis
Newbie TD Daniel Ennis of the Social Democrats was beaming as he walked through the gates of Leinster House this week.
Winning a seat in the Dublin Central byelection means that the Social Democrats now have 12 TDs in the Dáil, giving them more speaking time in the Dáil.
It was all smiles for Ennis while he took his seat and received congratulations, while Fine Gael’s Seán Kyne was notably more muted, smiling a little less, as he took his seat.
He’s been here before, remember, having already served as a TD between 2011 and 2020 before he lost his seat.
At the time, Kyne said he made the decision to leave politics, but he ended up back in the Seanad, biding his time. Everything has come up Millhouse for the Fine Gaeler though, making it back into the fold after his success in Galway West.
Tánaiste Simon Harris was quick to say this week that this vote wasn’t a pat on the back for the party, but a nudge for Fine Gael to drive improvements.
2. Catherine Ardagh
Big news for Fianna Fáil’s Catherine Ardagh this week as she gets the nod for a promotion.
With the unexpected departure of Michael Healy Rae as junior minister in the Department of Agriculture, chatter was swirling around Leinster House as to who might get the gig.
Fianna Fáil’s Aindrias Moynihan was tipped for the job, but on Thursday it was announced that there would be a mini reshuffle of junior ministers.
The Taoiseach decided to move Niall Collins from his role as junior minister to make way for Ardagh to take on responsibility for international law, law reform and youth justice. As a result, Collins has stepped into the Healy Rae shoes as the new agriculture junior minister.
Ardagh currently serves as a TD for Dublin South Central, having been elected in 2024. Before her election to the Dáil, she served as a senator from 2016 to 2024.
3. Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran
It is not easy to speak openly about deeply personal matters such as mental health and suicide, so Minister of State Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran deserves credit this week for opening up about his own experience.
At the launch of the government’s new Connecting for Life 2026–2035, Ireland’s new 10-year strategy to further reduce suicide and self-harm, the junior minister spoke about his own suicide attempt many years ago.
He previously spoke about it on The Late Late Show in 2017, but speaking so openly in front of the country’s media this week in a bid to remove the stigma takes guts.
The strategy sets out a clear vision of an Ireland where fewer lives are lost to suicide and where people have access to the supports they need. It includes an ambitious target to reduce the rate of suicide to seven per 100,000 or below by 2035.
The strategy builds on meaningful progress made over the past two decades, during which the suicide rate has fallen by a third (32%) between 2000 and 2023.
4. James O’Connor
Fianna Fáil’s James O’Connor revived the idea of Ireland exploring nuclear power.
It has been a contentious debate over the years.
Some scoffed at it, but given the energy crisis, the Cork TD has managed to get the backing from the Taoiseach and his parliamentary party for a bill he is putting forward to remove the country’s ban on the generation of power by nuclear fission.
It’s a big achievement for the ambitious young TD, who has been vocal about his desire to rise higher in the party.
The three losers of the week are…
1. Darragh O’Brien
Accusations were flying at Climate Minister Darragh O’Brien this week, with the opposition saying he was full of spin when it came to the country’s climate targets.
He insisted Ireland can halve its carbon emissions by the early 2030s – despite the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publishing projections this week showing the country is way off track on its goals. When it comes to the fines that Ireland could face for missing the targets, there was talk this week that they may amount to nothing.
Labour and the Social Democrats took aim at the minister, with Labour leader Ivana Bacik stating that the Green Party’s exit from government marked the death knell of Fianna Fáil’s ambition on climate.
2. Mary Lou McDonald
While Daniel Ennis and Seán Kyne were on the winners’ list, Mary Lou McDonald finds herself on the losers’ list due to the failure of the Sinn Féin leader to get her candidate over the line in her own backyard.
There was optimism when a poll result before the byelection showed that Janice Boylan was coming out top. Seen around Leinster House that week, Boylan and those in her party seemed buoyant – but it was not to be.
The questions about McDonald’s leadership are now hanging around like a bad smell. Those in the party say ‘there is nothing to see here’ and that all is hunky-dory, but when other party leaders such as Holly Cairns are saying Sinn Féin needs to take a look at itself, and with Labour’s Ivana Bacik questioning whether Sinn Féin is even a left-wing party, well then, it is not a good week.
3. The Independents and Smaller Parties technical group
The Dáil group of which President Catherine Connolly was a member has had to trade its position of chair of the Oireachtas Irish Language Committee with Fianna Fáil, as no member of the group has sufficient Irish to take the role.
The chairperson role was vacated in October last year upon Connolly’s election as president of Ireland. It then fell to Connolly’s colleagues in the Independents and Smaller Parties technical group to fill the position.
However, because no member of the group had sufficient competence in Irish, the group sought to trade the position with another party. The Independents and Smaller Parties technical group comprises People Before Profit TDs Richard Boyd Barrett and Paul Murphy, Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger, Green TD Roderic O’Gorman and Independents Seamus Healy, Charles Ward and Brian Stanley.
The Journal understands that the group has traded the position with the government parties, with Fianna Fáil’s TD for Kildare North, Naoise Ó Cearúil, who is currently leas chathaoirleach of the committee, set to take the role.
In return, the technical group will be granted the chairperson role for the next Dáil committee to be established, which will be focused on women and gender-based violence.
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.