DUBLIN BAY NORTH TD Barry Heneghan has moved his seats in the Dáil chamber. 

The first-time Dáil deputy had been seated next to his Regional Independent group colleague Michael Lowry, and featured prominently on social media last week in footage taken just before Lowry made a two-fingered gesture to another politician.

In a letter to the Taoiseach, Heneghan said that while some may see the seat move as symbolic, he was making it in order to be free from unnecessary distractions. 

Heneghan, who has come for criticism online after featuring in last week’s viral video of Lowry’s gesture, said he would not be “intimidated” away from working on behalf of his voters. 

Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Claire Byrne programme today, Finian McGrath – a former TD for the same constituency and an advisor to the young politician – said he and the team around Heneghan had made the suggestion to move seats.

McGrath, who also served as a junior minister, said: “The advice – and it came from all of our team – was that we needed to assert that Barry Heneghan is a new, independent TD that supports the programme for government.

“His only objective is to deliver on issues like Beaumont hospitals, [Gaelcholáiste] Reachrann and issues like that,” McGrath added, referring to a list of priorities the TD outlined in his letter to the Taoiseach – which includes a new A&E for the local hospital.

Asked if this has resulted in a falling out between Heneghan and Lowry – seen as the leader of the technical grouping after taking the reins during the programme for government negotiations – McGrath said it did not.

“Barry is a member of the regional technical group. It’s a technical group. There’s no leaders,” McGrath said. “He’s focused on the programme for government, the stuff that he got into the programme for government. That’s his objective.”