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EVERY WEEKEND, OUR political team casts an eye over the events inside and outside Leinster House that have people talking.
This week, the Taoiseach was in Strasbourg to give an important speech to the Euroepan Parliament (our political correspondent Jane Matthews was there to bring you all the latest), hare coursing got everyone in a tizzy and the Metrolink is back in the news.
So, here are our political winners and losers from the week that was:
1. Micheál Martin
Another good week for the Taoiseach.
He was off in Strasbourg this week to address the European Parliament. He used his speech to call on the EU to do more to support peace in the Middle East and a two-State solution in Palestine.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire. The situation in the West Bank is deteriorating. The behaviour of the Netanyahu government is increasingly extreme,” Martin said.
“There are no democratic or humanitarian values which are flexible enough to justify the scale of death, destruction and displacement we have seen.
“It is a cause of deep and justified sadness and anger to many that Europe has not done enough to put pressure on Israel in the light of its egregious actions.
“I fully respect and understand that this is a difficult topic for many countries and is challenging many long-established connections and policies. But we simply must do more,” the Taoiseach said.
The Taoiseach got kudos from opposition members, such as MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin for being so forthright.
The Taoiseach and the government also get some credit for finally moving to put the Carlton Cinema site back into use, which was reportedly bought this week as part of the Metrolink project for €80 million.
However, he gets some points deducted for not giving more clarity on what the overall project will cost.
It resulted in a bit of a back and forth between Martin and Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald this week.
While she said she welcomed the move, she questioned if Metrolink would become another national children’s hospital fiasco.
The Taoiseach responded by stating that McDonald wanted the State to buy the site.
“That was my understanding. I thought that the Deputy would stand up to welcome this. Two weeks ago, she called for the State to buy this site,” he said.
She pushed him for a final figure on what Metrolink would cost, but the Taoiseach didn’t respond, only asking her whether she approved of the acquisition of this site, stating the minister is not in a position to put a definitive price tag on it right now.
“That is my point,” replied McDonald.
“Jesus, he really is a tosser,” said the Sinn Féin leader.
2. Maria Walsh
Fine Gael MEP Maria Walsh said she finds the government’s approach on so-called ‘return hubs’ “really frustrating”, stating that the “soft” language being used makes her “nervous”.
Last month, Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said Ireland wants to opt into new EU rules that could allow failed asylum seekers to be sent to these hubs. But on Wednesday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin appeared to contradict him, with the Taoiseach saying Ireland has “no immediate plans” to opt into such hubs.
Responding to these comments on Wednesday, Walsh told The Journal she will push back on any plans to introduce hubs on humanitarian grounds.
“I’ve been tracking Minister O’Callaghan’s comments on this for quite a while. We don’t have a strategy, ultimately,” Walsh said.
She noted that it is almost a month since the EU Migration Pact entered into force and said it is “really frustrating” that Ireland doesn’t have a plan in place yet on whether we are “in or out of return hubs”.
In particular, Walsh took issue with the fact that, under the EU rules, families could be sent to such hubs.
Under the EU-wide rules, member states are able to establish return hubs in third countries for people who have no right to stay in the member states.
Walsh, whether you agree or disagree with her stance, is defying the government, of which she is a part of, on return hubs, which is never an easy spot to be in, but should be noted when it happens.
3. Simon Harris
The Fine Gael party leader was probably a happy camper when he read the Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll.
It said Fine Gael is now the most popular party in the country, while support for Fianna Fáil increased marginally to 17%.
The Social Democrats’ support remained unchanged since last month’s poll, sitting at 12%.
Support for Aontú, the Labour Party, the Green Party, and People Before Profit-Solidarity was unchanged, at 6%, 3%, 3%, and 2% respectively. Support for Independents has grown to 11%.
For a long time now, Sinn Féin has topped the polls, so Harris will be only delighted to have toppled them from the top spot.
4. Gary Gannon
On his walk home through Dublin during the week, the Social Democrats TD saw a capital city in chaos, stating that there are clear indications that Ireland’s drug and policing policies have utterly failed.
On one of the hottest evenings of the year, he said the capital and the city’s main thoroughfare should be full of people out enjoying themselves, a place where visitors see Dublin at its best.
Instead, all he saw was vulnerability. The article he wrote for The Journal seems to have hit home with our readers, and has shone a light on something that is under the spotlight particularly as the hot summer days continue.
1. Niall Collins
Hare coursing has been a hot topic in the Dáil this week.
But an air of confusion and a lack of transparency has played out over a report that was cited to support hare coursing, which a minister said shows it contributes €70 million to the Irish economy annually.
Junior minister in the Department of Agriculture and Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins claimed that “independent economic analysis estimated that coursing contributed approximately €70.7 million annually to the Irish economy”.
He said the vast majority of this directly benefited rural communities, “with €37.9 million attributable to the life cycle of the coursing greyhound itself”.
The same figure was quoted by the chief executive of the Irish Coursing Club, DJ Liston, on RTÉ’s Liveline programme on Thursday, who said it came from a report by economist Jim Power in 2022.
He said €70 million was the turnover figure for the industry.
When The Journal contacted the Irish Coursing Club to request a copy of the 2022 report, Liston refused to provide it as he said it first had to be presented to Irish Coursing Club members in the coming weeks.
Speaking in the Dáil during the week, People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy called on the government to correct the record about the €70 million figure.
“That independent analysis simply does not exist,” Murphy claimed.
Speaking to The Journal, Niall Collins said he has seen and read the report himself but that it is not his to release.
“It’s authored by Jim Power, who is a reputable economic commentator. If Paul Murphy and others want to discredit the report without seeing it, well then that is another story.
“There’s no mystery about this, I’ve seen the report… Once the ICC present the report to their membership, they will publish it,” Collins said.
The Journal has contacted Jim Power to ask for evidence to support the €70 million figure.
Ultimately, the motion was overwhelmingly defeated in the Dáil, but when the ethics of hare coursing heats up the Dáil to such a degree, there is an onus on the minister and the government to put all the facts and figures into the public domain. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen this week.
2. Jim O’Callaghan
We said last week that if the row with solicitors rumbled on for another week, the justice minister could find himself in hot water.
The minister has so far faced down the heated criticism over his decision to introduce a single flat fee model for criminal legal aid work.
But some of the repercussions are starting to be seen now. The Journal reported that two sexual abuse trials stalled this week over the solicitors’ legal aid pay dispute.
The Taoiseach has defended the government’s position, saying that the fee has been increased, and he doesn’t understand why the lawyers are continuing with their action.
As pointed out last week, the courts are set to finish up shortly for the summer, so the minister might try and ride out this controversy till then.
Tell us in the comments who your winners and losers are this week.
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