Latest news with #ImplementationoftheGoodFridayAgreement
Irish Examiner
25-04-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Sinn Féin chooses John Brady to chair Dáil's Public Accounts Committee
John Brady, a Sinn Féin TD for Wicklow, has been appointed as chair of the Dáil's powerful Public Accounts Committee. There had been months of delays to appoint committees and their chairs, after the Dáil's speaking rights row disrupted their formation. The top jobs at Oireachtas committees include a €10,888 salary top-up and are doled out through the d'Hondt method – which gives the positions based on party size in the Dáil. Sinn Féin was the final party to announce its picks for committee chairs, with a number of the party's prominent frontbenchers being selected to take up top jobs. This includes Galway West TD Mairéad Farrell, who will chair the Finance Committee, and Cavan-Monaghan TD Matt Carthy, who will chair the Justice, Home Affairs and Migration committee. Ms Farrell briefly was the chair of the PAC in the last Dáil, after former Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley resigned from the party amid internal party inquiries. After his resignation, he was removed from the PAC chair position. Other party frontbenchers, Rose Conway Walsh and Louise O'Reilly, have been appointed as committee chairs, for the Defence and National Security committee and Petitions committee respectively. Limerick City TD Maurice Quinlivan will chair the Disability Matters committee, while Waterford TD Conor D McGuinness takes up the top position on the Fisheries and Maritime Affairs committee. Fianna Fáil committee chairs On Thursday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed his own party's committee chairs, with Laois TD Seán Fleming to take over chairing the Infrastructure & National Development Plan Delivery committee. Cork East TD James O'Connor was appointed as chair of the Enterprise, Tourism and Employment committee, while Dublin South-West TD John Lahart was appointed to chair the Foreign Affairs and Trade committee. Aindrias Moynihan, from Cork North-West, will chair the Agriculture and Food committee, while Clare TD Cathal Crowe takes on the Education and Youth committee. Other appointees include Louth TD Erin McGreehan as chair of the Further and Higher Education committee, Dun Laoghaire TD Cormac Devlin as chair of the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement committee and Wicklow-Wexford TD Malcolm Byrne as AI committee chair. Fine Gael committee chairs Tánaiste Simon Harris appointed seven Fine Gael TDs to chair committees, all of whom are first-time TDs. This includes Micheál Carrigy to chair the Housing Committee, Michael Murphy to the Transport committee and John Paul O'Shea to the Social Protection committee. Barry Ward, TD for Dun Laoghaire, is to chair the European Affairs committee, while Mayo TD Keira Keogh will chair the Children and Equality committee. Naoise Ó Muiri and Catherine Callaghan are to chair the Climate committee and Members Interests committee respectively. Other committee chairs The Social Democrats, meanwhile, confirmed Cork South Central TD Pádraig Rice will chair the Health Committee, while his party colleague Gary Gannon will chair the time-limited Drug Use committee. For Labour, Tipperary North TD Alan Kelly will chair the Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport Committee. The party will also appoint the chairperson of the Traveller Community committee, but is yet to make a decision on the matter. Independent TD for Galway West, Catherine Connolly, will chair the Irish Language committee. The Independent technical group, made up of Independent Ireland, Aontú and independent TD Paul Gogarty, will chair one committee - the budgetary oversight committee. This is likely to go to an Independent Ireland TD.
Irish Times
24-04-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Delayed party appointments of Oireachtas committee chairpersons under way ahead of Dáil return next week
Oireachtas committee chair appointments are under way as part of the final steps to enable the resumption of full Dáil business after the Easter break. The appointments, which come with a €10,880 salary top-up, have been held up by a long-running row between the Opposition and the Government over the allocation of speaking time in the Dáil. The dispute eventually subsided amid acrimony and ill feelings last month. Chair and member positions on committees, which scrutinise legislation and actions of public bodies, are allocated to parties and Oireachtas groupings relative to their numerical strength. Among the most high-profile committee exercises of late is the Public Accounts Committee's scrutiny of RTÉ 's spending, following a controversy over additional payments to broadcaster Ryan Tubridy . READ MORE In the wake of discontent over a €6.7 million spend on a failed IT project , the Arts Council is expected to be among the first state bodies invited to appear before the Arts and Media Committee, to which the Labour Party has assigned veteran TD Alan Kelly as chair. Fianna Fáil confirmed appointments of its committee chairpersons in a statement on Thursday afternoon, elevating a mixture of experienced TDs and those more recently elected. Fine Gael is contacting its TDs about committee chair positions. It is expected that Sinn Féin may not reveal its line-up before tomorrow. Only one first-term TD has been put forward by Micheál Martin : Louth deputy Erin McGreehan, who is also the only woman named in the party's list. This leaves two women among Fianna Fáil's current batch of TDs who have not been appointed as ministers or committee chairs. They are Dublin South-Central's Catherine Ardagh and Meath East's Aisling Dempsey. Former minister of state Seán Fleming, who TD for Laois, will head the Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery, but there is no place for another long-time TD and former junior minister: Cavan-Monaghan's Brendan Smith. Although he hails from a border constituency, chairmanship of the Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement has gone to Dún Laoghaire's Cormac Devlin. Another Dublin TD appointed is Dublin South-West's John Lahart, who will chair the Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee. Cork will be represented by Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North-West), who will chair the Agriculture and Food Committee, and Cork East's James O'Connor, who will head the Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment. Malcolm Byrne, TD for Wicklow-Wexford, will lead the Committee on Artificial Intelligence , while Clare's Cathal Crowe, a teacher by training, will chair the Committee on Education and Youth. Sinn Féin is expected to announce the names of its seven committee chairs on Friday. Tánaiste and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris is understood to have told some of his parliamentary party who will be taking the reins at committees led by Fine Gael representatives. They include Dún Laoghaire's Barry Ward, who will chair the EU Affairs Committee, and Tipperary South's Michael Murphy, who will lead the Transport Committee. Roscommon TD Micheál Carrigy will chair the Housing Committee. Cork North-West's John Paul O'Shea is also tipped for elevation among Fine Gael backbenchers, as is Mayo's Keira Keogh and Carlow-Kilkenny's Catherine Callaghan. As well as appointing Alan Kelly, Labour will nominate the chair of the committee related to issues affecting the Traveller community, with Kildare South's Mark Wall in the running to be appointed. The Social Democrats are to appoint Gary Gannon of Dublin Central to head the Committee on Drug Use, while their first-time TD for Cork South-Central, Pádraig Rice, will chair the Committee on Health. Limerick County TD Richard O'Donoghue, of Independent Ireland, is being tipped to chair the Budgetary Oversight Committee, with independent for Galway West, Catherine Connolly, likely to lead the Irish Language Committee.
