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WE VERY NEARLY have a new government up and running, with a vote on Taoiseach set to take place next Wednesday.
Earlier this week, the publication of the draft programme for government gave us an insight into how the government will work and what its priorities will be over the next five years.
Replacing the Greens this time around are seven TDs from the Regional Independents Group along with Michael and Danny Healy-Rae, who have done quite well for themselves in the negotiations.
Taking to the plinth in Leinster House on Wednesday, lead-negotiator for the Regional Independents, TD Michael Lowry, informed the media of the positions the group secured (Before cutting the press conference short after being asked questions about the Moriarty Tribunal).
The group will have two junior ministers, Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran in the OPW and Sligo TD Marian Harkin in higher education.
It has also secured two super junior ministers who will sit at the Cabinet table: Galway West TD Noel Grealish will be a super junior with responsibility for food at the Department of Agriculture, while Galway East TD Seán Canney will have a Minister of State position in the Department of Transport.
Canney has also been put forward by the group to represent it in weekly leaders’ meetings with the Taoiseach and Tánaiste. A coveted position.
He will have the ear of the two most powerful figures in the State and will be in a position to directly influence government policy in a way other TDs could only dream of.
So who is Seán Canney, the man who is – to shoehorn a Hamilton reference in here – now in the room where it happens?
Canney’s time in national politics has largely been without controversy.
He was first elected to the Dáil in 2016 and has been an Independent for his entire political career.
Canney describes his vision for Ireland as one where “our children and grandchildren can build a decent life for themselves, where all people are treated equally and where our society looks after the most vulnerable”.
On his website, he states that this can be done through policies that empower people and communities.
Canney, who has campaigned to abolish the means test on the carers’ allowance, has been described as a “champion” for carers’ rights throughout his time as a TD.
This was the phrase used by Family Carers Ireland’s spokesperson, Catherine Cox when speaking about Canney yesterday on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
In recent Dáil contributions, he has spoken about harsher sentencing for those that commit sexual offences, telling the Dáil last year:
“We need to consider how that is treated and how the people who perpetrate these crimes, who are a danger to society, can reoffend, get bail and be out in society.”
During a motion on gender-based violence, Canney called for a cross-Oireachtas committee to be established on the issue, which he said should be chaired by the justice minister.
Such a committee could bring about change, “not just on a tokenistic basis, but on a basis that we might deliver effective measures that will stand up with the bravery women have shown and have continued to speak about”, he said.
On other issues, Canney was opposed to repealing the eighth amendment and has spoken at anti-abortion events in recent years.
In 2021, he co-sponsored a bill to provide for pain relief for the foetus in certain cases of termination of pregnancy. The bill was defeated by a Dáil vote.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Canney co-sponsored a bill with TDs Catherine Connolly and Peadar Toíbín that sought a public inquiry into the management of nursing homes during the crisis.
In 2023, the Galway East TD co-sponsored a bill that sought to amend the Gender Recognition Act 2015 to make provisions for single-sex accommodation in prisons.
Before becoming a TD, Canney unsuccessfully ran for a Dáil seat in 2011 and sat on Galway County Council for a decade from 2004 to 2014.
He was also mayor of County Galway in 2007 to 2008.
Flash forward to his entry into the national arena and Canney found himself immediately in the fold of power.
This current round of government formation talks was not his first rodeo, with Canney participating in the same discussions in 2016 as a member of the Independent Alliance.
That time around, formation talks lasted 70 days and culminated in the Independent Alliance going into government with Enda Kenny’s Fine Gael.
As part of the deal, the Independent Alliance was given the role of minister of state for the OPW and flood relief and it was agreed that it would alternate between Canney and Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran (who is also a member of the Regional Independents Group this time around).
Canney took up the post first – it is understood this decision was made via a literal coin flip.
The handover was done one year later and by all accounts was a cordial affair, at the time Moran told The Journal that the torch was passed at an event in his local pub in Athlone.
Things, however, did not stay cordial for long. Somewhat unbelievably there was confusion over who would hold the position for the third year.
Canney was of the understanding that the position would rotate again, but the rest of the Independent Alliance decided that Moran would stay in the role for the remainder of the government’s term.
Cue huge row.
The group called on Canney to clarify his position, giving him a deadline to make his position known.
His position was clear: he was out. Canney announced he was leaving the Independent Alliance in May 2018 but would still support the government on issues of confidence and budgetary matters.
Flash forward a few months, to October 2018, and Canney was back in a junior ministerial position having been appointed a minister of state in the Department of Rural and Community Development by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
There he was responsible for Community Development, Natural Resources and Digital Development. He remained in that role until the formation of a new government in June 2020.
While in government, Canney pushed to scrap mandatory retirement policies.
In this recent election, the issues he identified as important were: farming, housing, health care, carers, infrastructure, public transport and disability matters.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast last month, Canney identified housing as a particular concern of his.
He rejected the notion that Independents deal solely in “parish pump politics” but did mention local issues like traffic congestion in Galway and the lack of public transport in the county. He has been an advocate for the delivery of the Western Rail Corridor.
He has been outspoken about his view that the issues facing his constituents in Galway East are replicated across the country.
“Just because I am an Independent TD it doesn’t mean I am parochial.
“The national interest serves the local interest as well,” he told Primetime this week.
Brought up on a family farm in Belcare, Tuam, Canney is married and is the father of three children, Kenneth, Shane and the late David.
Before entering national politics, Canney was a quantity surveyor and lectured in that and construction economics at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology.
Outside of work, he is involved in Gaelic football and is a member of Corofin GAA where he served as its assistant secretary for a number of years.
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