The health minister, the pub and the disappearing plaque
Carroll MacNeill, a Fine Gael TD for Dun Laoghaire, attended an event celebrating the reopening of the Queens in Dalkey, south Co Dublin, on Saturday, July 12. Photographs showed a clearly elated Carroll MacNeill unveiling the plaque alongside her fellow constituency TDs Barry Ward, of Fine Gael, and Cormac Devlin, of Fianna Fail. However, the plaque, which said the pub was 'officially reopened by the minister for health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill', has now been removed on request by the minister.
A spokeswoman for Carroll MacNeill said: 'The minister attended an event for the reopening of a local food and beverage business in her constituency.
'Ahead of attending the event she was not aware there would be a plaque unveiling at it. She subsequently asked the business to remove the plaque, not wanting to take away from the event on the evening, which was a community celebration.' It is understood that Carroll MacNeill did not ask for the plaque to be removed until a few days after the event.
The pub, which is now under the ownership of Doherty Hospitality, has been a favoured haunt of celebrities such as Bono and Bruce Springsteen. In a video post uploaded to the Queens Dalkey Instagram page, Carroll MacNeill is also seen cutting a red ribbon at the event.
'With the sun shining, the garden packed and the drinks flowing we were honoured to have councillor Jim Gildea, cathaoirleach of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown county council, and minister for health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill officially open this exciting new chapter for a beloved local landmark,' the post's caption read.
The Queens declined to comment on Carroll MacNeill's request for the plaque to be removed. The plaque was gone when The Sunday Times visited the pub last Thursday evening.
Separately, the minister has been warned against deferring legislation to compel the drinks industry to include health warning labels on its products. Sheila Gilheany, chief executive of Alcohol Action Ireland, the national charity, urged Carroll MacNeill to stick to the timeline for introducing the new alcohol labelling by May next year, despite suggestions that the government intends to delay the legislation until 2029.
'We assume that at cabinet she will vigorously defend her own department's long-stated policy against the recent attacks on it by some of her own party colleagues, who have taken the mantle of the health-harming alcohol industry,' Gilheany said.
She added that deferring alcohol labelling laws would mean that Carroll MacNeill was allowing the alcohol industry to set health policy.
'Presumably she would not allow the tobacco industry to do likewise. It is worth noting that alcohol swallows up 11 per cent of her department's budget and likely costs Ireland twice as much as tobacco in terms of impacts to health, justice, loss of workplace productivity and harm to others,' Gilheany said.
On Wednesday last week Carroll MacNeill was asked by Sinéad Gibney, the Social Democrats TD, when the legislation would be implemented. Gibney cited recent statements by Simon Harris, the tanaiste, about pausing the rules.
Carroll MacNeill replied. 'The minister for health made the Public Health (Alcohol) (Labelling) Regulations 2023 and commenced section 12 of the act on May 18, 2023. The law will come into operation on May 22, 2026.'
Last month Harris indicated that the timing of the labelling legislation would need to be reconsidered because of uncertainty for businesses in the international trade environment. 'We are very proud of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act, but we will make a decision in the coming weeks on the timing of the labels. I personally believe a deferral will be required,' Harris told the Dail.
Alcohol Action Ireland said last week that the decision on alcohol labelling ultimately taken by Micheál Martin, the taoiseach, would have a lasting impact on his legacy. The legislation would make Ireland the first country in the world to introduce such rules.
'He [Martin] is rightly held in the highest regard nationally and internationally thanks to his leadership around Ireland's smoking regulations and he knows all too well the power of industry lobbying, having faced down the tobacco industry,' Gilheany said.
She added that deferring the legislation would be a 'betrayal of Ireland's health and democratic processes'.
'The eyes of the world are on him again and Alcohol Action Ireland is strongly urging the taoiseach to do the right thing and resist industry lobbying once more and proceed as planned with alcohol labelling's introduction in May 2026,' Gilheany said.
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