Latest news with #MaireadFarrell
BreakingNews.ie
25-04-2025
- Business
- BreakingNews.ie
Sinn Féin TD John Brady to chair Public Accounts Committee
Sinn Féin TD John Brady is to chair the Public Accounts Committee, the most powerful of the 28 political panels. The committee, also known as PAC, is charged with ensuring that public services are run efficiently and offer value for money. Advertisement In the last Dáil, the party had hailed Mairead Farrell, the Galway West TD, as the first female chair of PAC after Brian Stanley resigned from Sinn Féin. Ms Farrell is to chair the Oireachtas Committee on Finance. Asked on Friday why Sinn Féin had taken Ms Farrell out of the PAC position, party TD Eoin O Broin told reporters that she had been given an 'even more significant role' in terms of her frontbench spokeswoman role for public expenditure, infrastructure, public service reform and digitalisation. Galway TD Mairead Farrell (Niall Carson/PA) He said party leader Mary Lou McDonald had made a 'really good selection' and added: 'We've appointed a significant number of women and women of real stature to committee positions.' Advertisement On the other seven Oireachtas committees chaired by Sinn Féin, Matt Carthy is at the helm of the Committee on Justice, Home Affairs & Migration, Maurice Quinlivan is chairing the Committee on Disability Matters, and Rose Conway Walsh is chairing the Defence Committee. Conor McGuinness is chairing the Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Committee, while Louise O'Reilly is taking the Petitions Committee. The sharing of 28 Oireachtas committee chair roles between Dáil groupings is based on the general election results. The individuals appointed to chair committees receive an annual allowance bonus of 10,888 euros. Advertisement This week, Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Tanaiste Simon Harris announced their parties' TDs who will chair committees. Fianna Fail TDs are chairing eight committees while Fine Gael TDs are at the helm of seven. For Fianna Fail, John Lahart takes the Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee, Sean Fleming will chair the new Infrastructure Committee and James O'Connor will be at the helm of the Committee on Enterprise. Cathal Crowe is chairing the Committee on Education, while Erin McGreehan is chairing the Committee on Further and Higher Education. Advertisement Cormac Devlin is taking the Committee on Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, Aindrias Moynihan is taking the Committee on Agriculture and Malcolm Byrne is chairing the Committee on Artificial Intelligence. For Fine Gael, the Housing Committee will be chaired by Micheal Carrigy and Barry Ward will chair the Committee on European Affairs. Ireland Man (30s) arrested after burglary from jewellery s... Read More New Fine Gael TDs have also been given roles: Naoise O Muiri is the chair of the Climate Committee, Keira Keogh will chair the Committee on Children & Equality, Michael Murphy will chair the Committee on Transport, while John Paul O'Shea is chairing the Committee on Social Protection. For the Social Democrats, Padraig Rice is to chair the Health Committee and Gary Gannon will chair the Committee on Drug Use. Advertisement Labour's Alan Kelly is to chair the Media Committee, and Independent Galway TD Catherine Connolly is to chair the committee on behalf of the Independents and Smaller Parties technical group.
Irish Independent
25-04-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Sinn Féin's John Brady to chair high-profile Public Accounts Committee
The party has revealed the seven TDs who will take up the coveted roles, who will be entitled to an additional €10,000 per year for the positions. Mairead Farrell took over the PAC chair position from former Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley, but only held the position for a number of weeks before the dissolution of the Dáil ahead of the general election. Now the party's spokesperson for Public Expenditure, Ms Farrell will take over the chairpersonship on the Finance Committee from Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness. While Mr Brady is not part of the new front bench announced earlier this year, the position of PAC chair is an influential one and the committee previously played a central role in scrutinising the RTÉ payments scandal in the last Dáil term. There are a number of issues that will be already in the sights of PAC, including the overspend on the controversial IT system by the Arts Council. Cavan-Monaghan TD Matt Carthy will take on the chair of the Justice, Home Affairs and Migration Committee. Mr Carthy is Sinn Féin's spokesperson on Justice. Chair of the Disability Matters committee has been given to Limerick City TD Maurice Quinlivan, who ran in the recent Limerick mayoral election. Party spokesperson on Enterprise, Rose Conway-Walsh will be the chairperson of the Defence and National Security Committee. Louise O'Reilly, Sinn Féin's social protection spokesperson, will take on the chairperson role for the Petitions Committee, while Waterford TD Conor McGuinness will be the chair of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs. ADVERTISEMENT 'This is the largest number of committees that Sinn Féin has ever chaired in the Dáil, and are committees that will set the political direction for the coming years in ensuring zero tolerance for the waste of taxpayers money, having a migration system that works and standing up for Irish neutrality,' Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said. Ms McDonald said Sinn Féin chairs 'will work day and night' to hold this government to account and 'ensure taxpayers money is spent properly'. 'It is vital that all committees get to work quickly. The government have stalled for long enough and instead of dragging this work out for another month they need to speed up the process and allow Committees to get to work,' she added. Yesterday government parties revealed which TDs will take on chairperson roles in 15 committees. These included Fianna Fáil's Erin McGreehan, who will chair the Committee on Further & Higher Education and Fine Gael's Micheál Carrigy will be the chair of the Committee on Housing. Other opposition chair positions announced this week include Labour TD Alan Kelly who will chair the Media, Arts and Culture Committee and Social Democrats TD Pádraig Rice will chair the Committee on Health.
Belfast Telegraph
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Belfast Telegraph
MLA reports NI shop selling republican regalia to Trading Standards
Diana Armstrong, an Ulster Unionist MLA for Fermanagh-South Tyrone, said she has contacted Trading Standards about the store in Dungannon. The store, Siopa 16 at Beechvalley Way in the town, is selling republican-themed items including coasters, prints, bodhrans and more. Photos posted to the shop's Facebook page showcase bodhrans in support of the IRA's East Tyrone Brigade, memorabilia of high-profile IRA hunger strikers and copies of the 1916 Proclamation. Some items contain the image of eight IRA men shot dead by the SAS at Loughgall. The gang were killed as they mounted a gun and bomb attack on the village's RUC station in May 1987. There is also an item bearing the image of IRA woman Mairead Farrell, who was shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar in 1988. Diana Armstrong said the shop will cause unease across the community. 'I'm always one for promoting small business and entrepreneurship but the most recent addition on the Dungannon is one I will never support as it is nothing more than a shrine to terrorism and is deeply provocative to the whole community,' she said. 'The glorification and exploitation of well-known IRA terrorists who made no quarrel in murdering our kin is sickening and to stick them on a t-shirt or to don your shop with republican regalia is equally disturbing. Police at the scene of ongoing security alert at Cavehill in north Belfast 'Many of the items on sale will cause unease across the community and will be profoundly hurtful to the victims of republican terrorism. "I have urgently written to the Trading Standards watchdog seeking their intervention to see if this sort of trading is appropriate in Dungannon, as no paramilitary organisation should be promoted on our high streets."
