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The Journal
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Journal
Being a first-time TD: 'The hours are mad, if I finish at 9.30pm it feels like a half day'
YESTERDAY WE CAUGHT up with Social Democrats TD Sinéad Gibney on her experience of being a first-time TD, today we hear from the Labour Party's Conor Sheehan. At 32 years of age, the Limerick City TD is one of the youngest representatives in the Dáil. He talks us through the highs and lows, adjusting to hotel living and how he sometimes feels like he's talking to a brick wall. Is life as a TD what you expected? 'In ways it is and in other ways it isn't. I'll never forget the first time I stepped into the Dáil chamber. Sometimes I pinch myself when I'm sitting there during one of the week's set pieces like Leaders' Questions or whatever. 'The thing that struck me was actually how small the chamber is and how small the campus is as well. How often you bump into people the whole time.' Pit and peak Sheehan said he has had 'many highlights' so far. Notably, being on the panel for temporary chairs for the Dáil, which means he is sometimes called on to sit in as chair of the Dáil when Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy is not available. Other highlights have been working on legislation. 'It's really interesting, you know, doing committee stage in the chamber, and listening to the amendments,' he said. 'The delay in getting committees set up and everything like that was quite frustrating,' Sheehan said, adding that from a legislative perspective, the Dáil really only kicked into business in the last six weeks. He said at the beginning of the term, he felt like a huge amount of the Dáil schedule was dedicated to statements on a variety of topics, a move he feels was done to 'pad' the schedule because there wasn't much legislation coming through from the government. Sheehan said he finds it frustrating at times, as an opposition TD, to see government TDs vote down opposition bills or amendments and instead come back with a reply that is 'generic blather'. 'The thing that really annoys me is when you go in and you do a private member's motion, or you do a debate or whatever, and it's almost like sometimes the minister is coming in to read a pre-prepared reply and isn't actually engaging with you on the substance of the issues you are raising. 'Now, some ministers are better at that than others, but some are very frustrating. You just feel like you're talking to a wall.' Low point? 'The low point for me was all the crap that happened at the start of the year, around the recognition of the technical group and as to whether the [Regional Independents] were in government or opposition. It was totally unnecessary. 'The whole thing was unedifying… I thought it was a waste of everyone's time, and I don't understand why government were so insistent — Like they've created this other members' questions thing at the moment, which is almost like eight minutes of tumbleweed blowing through the Dáil chamber,' Sheehan said. Is there still animosity between the opposition and government since then? 'I think there is some bit of animosity, but I do think that things are thankfully no longer as tense as they were in the early part of the year,' Sheehan said, arguing that this is probably down to the fact the Dáil was busier in its last few weeks. 'Sometimes when you're in a vacuum, things can have a bit of an undue significance.' Advertisement At 32 years of age, Sheehan is one of the youngest TDs in the Dáil. How is he finding the career change from that perspective? 'The first thing I'd say is there are far too few young people in politics, right? 'I would be friendly enough with some of the other younger politicians, there would be people across different parties that I would be very fond of. 'People like Mairéad Farrell in Sinn Féin. She's great. Keira Keogh in Fine Gael, really, really, great. Just decent people that you can talk to about issues. 'There's an awful lot of people who think politics is just constant hand-to-hand combat, but it's actually not like that. An awful lot of the time, you disagree with people on certain things, but you'll agree with them on other things. And I always believe in finding common ground.' On the commute from Limerick, Sheehan opts for the train over driving so that he can get some work done, but he said this means he does a lot of 'pulling and dragging'. 'I'm used to it now, but people always slag me when they see me in Leinster House, because I always have a big, huge suitcase. 'I feel like I should have shares in Irish Rail at this stage. I drove a couple of times, coming down late on a Thursday, leaving Leinster House, snaking onto the Naas Road and just being like uh, when will I actually get home?' Sheehan said what he found tough initially was sleeping in hotels. 'I would go to bed in a hotel and 10 o'clock would become like one or 2 am and I would literally be wide awake in bed and not able to sleep. 'I would just feel out of sorts. Too hot or too cold, or it would be too loud, or I could hear footsteps. All very much first-world problems, but I did find that stuff, until I got into a routine, a bit tough. Whereas now I'm totally used to it.' Another aspect of the gig Sheehan said he finds tough is trying to maintain a healthy diet. 'You're constantly eating on the go, and it's not the most healthy lifestyle in the entire world,' Sheehan said, adding that his diet since becoming a TD has consisted of 'a lot of chips'. 'One of the things I do miss when I'm in Dublin is just being able to cook your dinner. 'Because I'm currently in and out of hotels in Dublin, I suppose I don't get that. But I love the job. It's really been such an enormous honour and privilege.' What I wish I knew Sheehan said the biggest thing any first-time TD has to be careful of is making sure they pace themselves, both mentally and physically. 'The thing about Leinster House is that the working hours are mad. I've often arrived in on a Wednesday morning around 8 am to get maybe an hour's work done before a committee meeting or a briefing at nine, and then I am still there that Wednesday evening at 10 or 11 o'clock at night.' Sheehan said it is rare to finish up any earlier than this on a Tuesday or Wednesday when the Dáil is sitting. 'I remember one Wednesday, about six or eight weeks ago, we got out at twenty past nine, and I felt like I'd had a half day.' Any surprises? 'The amount of people in a similar situation as myself trying to figure everything out. And the amount of decency that's in the Oireachtas.' 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Irish Times
21-06-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
Sinéad Gibney tells of how cousin Des Bishop ‘helped me to reflect on my own drinking'
It was a routine slot in the Dáil early on Thursday morning. Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke was taking oral questions from TDs. Somebody asked him about mandatory health labelling on alcohol products. He replied the Government might defer its introduction because of the threat of US tariffs. Social Democrats TD Sinéad Gibney intervened to say she opposed putting the labels on the long finger. It was then that she disclosed to the chamber, and by extension to the public, her own relationship with alcohol. 'I haven't had a drink of alcohol in 13½ years. Alcohol and its negative impacts have played a huge part in my life,' she told the Dáil. Gibney had thought through what she would say and the fact she would be making this very public revelation to support her opposition to this rollback of policy. She had spoken publicly about her drinking in the past but knew that saying it in the Dáil would draw a different level of attention to her personally. READ MORE [ TD says she hasn't drunk alcohol in over 13 years during impassioned plea to not delay health-warning labels Opens in new window ] The Social Democrats TD for Dublin-Rathdown has been perceived as a high achiever throughout her career, having been head of social action with Google Ireland and the chief commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission . However, from her mid-teens to her mid-30s, she had a problematic relationship with alcohol. 'My drinking had always been too heavy. I had my first drink at 14. I was regularly drinking by the time I was 16. I'm not good at stopping. 'I was good craic, but I would always be the last person standing, and that's not good for your health ... That pattern was always there, absolutely.' Things came to a head in her mid-30s. She was a single mother, working in Google and studying for a master's degree. 'I had a busy social life and, like a lot of Irish people, I drank too much. 'It wasn't detrimental to my friendships. I was a life-and-soul type of person but it was detrimental to me in terms of my own mental health. I had a lot of bad hangovers.' There was no epiphany moment, no intervention. She decided to see if she could live her life without alcohol. She also wanted to be more present for her daughter, Bella, who was 11 at the time. 'I knew that I just wasn't there for Bella in a way that I wanted to be. That was definitely part of my motivation.' The comedian Des Bishop is her cousin and he had a destructive relationship with alcohol as a younger man. She talked to him frequently around this time. 'He helped me to reflect on my own drinking and what it was like in my life. That prompted self-reflection in me. And so I decided to test my life without alcohol.' 18/12/2024 - NEWS - Image as the Dail return's. Sinead Gibney SD. Photograph Nick Bradshaw / The Irish Times At the time, she did not describe it to herself as an addiction. 'I saw myself as somebody who worked hard and played hard. I did not necessarily think I had a problem with alcohol.' Nonetheless the drinking patterns were not healthy. 'I might have a bottle of wine in the fridge that I would have over a few nights, and then sometimes I wouldn't put the bottle away. On a weeknight, drinking a full bottle of wine is not good. The thing is it did not interfere with my work. It was much more impactful on my relationship with my daughter and, indeed, with myself.' She had picked a date of mid-January 2012 to stop. But a 'hard night' out just after Christmas, and a horrendous hangover, brought the date forward to New Year's Eve. She has not taken alcohol since. 'I just bare-knuckled it. The thing about addiction is that when you take away the painkiller you feel the pain. I went into therapy a few months later and I had a brilliant therapist. I've been in therapy multiple times in my life. I'm a big fan of it and very open about it. 'I was dealing with stuff that arose because I gave up alcohol and that was why I needed that therapy journey.' She said that people advised her she would probably not get a whole lot out of Alcoholics Anonymous at that time. 'So I chose not to go. I did go to AA years later for a period and really found it very helpful. But at the time for me, therapy was a really good support in navigating through life without alcohol.' She says she doesn't tend to use the word alcoholic a lot mainly because of the reaction it provokes and because addiction is a complex topic. 'A lot of us have forms of addiction in our lives that we don't really own up to. I think it was probably years later that I probably started to say the word alcoholic, but I did talk about addiction and recovery from quite soon after. My sobriety now is something I really treasure.' The personal benefits were immeasurable. 'It transformed my relationship with my daughter. I became so much more present, and the quality of time that we had together just shot up.' The change was not without big challenges, though: 'I now had to navigate social anxiety and how to be around people in a social setting without the crutch of alcohol. 'I spend a lot of time in my life working on my self-awareness. I do not feel that I would be here where I am today if I hadn't made that choice around alcohol. 'I think there is a large amount of potential in this country that is untapped because of alcohol. People will hear my story, and hopefully some people will hear something similar to what they experience. Every single human should examine their relationship with alcohol.'
Irish Times
19-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
TD admits she hasn't drank alcohol in over 13 years during impassioned plea to not delay health-warning labels
An opposition TD has spoken about the negative impact of alcohol on her life as she raised concerns about a possible delay in the introduction of health-warning labels on drinks products . Social Democrats TD Sinéad Gibney told the Dáil she has not drunk alcohol for more than 13 years. The party's enterprise spokeswoman was speaking following recent comments from a number of ministers – including Tánaiste Simon Harris , Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe and Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke – suggesting the introduction of labelling may be delayed because of the possible impact of US tariffs on the global trade environment. The labels warn about the risk of liver disease and fatal cancers from alcohol consumption and the risk of drinking while pregnant. They also list the calories in the product and the number of grams of alcohol. The labels are due to come into effect on May 22nd, 2026. Ms Gibney said the measure 'has the backing of the entire medical community'. READ MORE Raising the issue during Dáil questions on enterprise, tourism and employment, the Dublin Rathdown TD said: 'I haven't had a drink of alcohol in 13½ years. Alcohol and its negative impacts have played a huge part in my life. 'I say this and I share this because I think there is hardly a family in Ireland which doesn't have the same experience.' Minister of State Alan Dillon said labelling is a matter for the Department of Health. 'I have a duty to defend the interests of Irish indigenous SMEs who are facing unprecedented global trade pressures,' he said. The US market counts for nearly 40 per cent of Irish exports and Irish whiskey exports alone are worth nearly €450 million, he added. The Minister insisted 'this is not about undermining public health'. He said 'it's about sequencing policy in a way to protect jobs' and ensure economic resilience in the sector. Mr Dillon added that the legislation comes at a time when many businesses 'are struggling with uncertainty'. However, Ms Gibney said it is 'wrong and unfair to dangle it as a response to tariffs, when it won't even help those Irish companies because it doesn't have an impact on exports'. Holding up one of the health labels, she said: 'Distributors are actually already putting the labelling on in anticipation of it. So all this would do is cause confusion if you were to roll it back.' The legislation has been in the pipeline since 2019 and Ms Gibney said it positions Ireland as a leader in health measures, just as the smoking ban did. She said 'if we kept in step with Europe on the smoking ban, we would still not have a smoking ban'. But Mr Dillon said 'we're very much committed to a whole-of-a-Government approach to public health, but also to economic sustainability'. The Minister added: 'We would not apologise for standing up for Irish jobs, for Irish businesses within this sector to ensure that we maintain Ireland's global competitiveness. 'We need to ensure that the well-intentioned regulation does not become, in time, a disrupter to many of these exporters at a time of real uncertainty.' He said 'the national alcohol labelling regulation, while rooted in public health objectives, must be administered in a way that does not jeopardise Ireland's export-led recovery'. The drinks manufacturing sector employs more than 5,500 people and is a strategic contributor to the economy, he added. 'What we wanted to do here is not to abandon the public health goals, but we're asking for a more pragmatic sequencing and economic realism here in terms of its implementation.'
RTÉ News
11-06-2025
- Politics
- RTÉ News
Protest at Leinster House ahead of Central Bank vote
A protest is being held outside Leinster House ahead of a vote on a motion seeking to ban the Central Bank from facilitating the sale of so-called Israeli war bonds. The day-long 'Stop Funding Genocide' action was organised by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC). Government TDs will tonight vote on whether to ban the facilitation of the war bonds in Ireland, a cross-party motion brought forward by the Social Democrats. Last month, a similar motion brought forward by Sinn Féin was defeated by 87 votes to 75. Social Democrats TD Sinéad Gibney spoke at the protest, saying the Government had a second opportunity to stop the sale of Israeli bonds in Europe. She said: "Our Central Bank is currently facilitating Israeli bonds in Europe by approving the prospectus of Israeli bonds. "Every country has the right to raise bonds and sell them but the bonds that are being raised and sold by Israel right now are being used to fund this genocide. "The weapons, the bombs and the bullets that have killed 55,000 people, that have injured 126,000 people, they are partly funded by the sale of those bonds. "Our Central Bank says there's nothing they can do, but we can in the Dáil. So today we offer the Government another opportunity to stop the Central Bank from approving that prospectus, to play our part in stopping the sale of Israeli bonds in Europe." During the protest a group of women dressed in black held a 15-minute "keening" outside the gates of Leinster House - the action of wailing in grief. Senator Frances Black, who was among the attendees, said the "keeners" represented what the crowd was feeling. She said: "Our hearts are broken at this time by what we're seeing in Gaza and the West Bank, it's absolutely outrageous and we've seen that now for over a year and a half. "We've been confronted with scenes in Gaza that are so horrific they will haunt us and certainly haunt me as long we can remember." The Government has posed a counter-motion that outlines the actions the Coalition has taken so far against Israel. Earlier, the governor of the Central Bank told politicians that it cannot refuse to facilitate the sale of Israel war bonds as doing so would break EU capital markets rules. Gabriel Makhlouf outlined the position to the Oireachtas Committee on Finance and Public Expenditure this afternoon. He said the Central Bank was "absolutely appalled" by what is happening in Gaza. However, the bank is "required to perform" certain actions under EU rules, he said, adding "we are established by law, we are empowered by law, and we must always act within and in line with the law".
The Journal
09-06-2025
- Business
- The Journal
Opposition calls for ‘vote of conscience' on Israeli 'war bonds' ahead of cross-party motion
OPPOSITION PARTIES HAVE requested a free 'vote of conscience' on a motion calling on the Government to stop the Central Bank from facilitating the sale of Israeli State Bonds. The Central Bank of Ireland is the designated authority in relation to the sale of Israeli Bonds in the EU. Israeli State Bonds have been advertised as supporting the country's economy, and more recently, websites promoting the securities emphasise their role in supporting Israel's military operations in Gaza, leading some to dub them 'Israeli war bonds'. The Central Bank is responsible for assessing whether a prospectus for the offer of securities is in compliance with requirements of the EU Prospectus Regulation, with the authority saying approval should not be viewed as 'an endorsement of the issuer'. Protesters have demonstrated outside the Central Bank and called for legislation that would give Ireland the power to refuse the sale of Israeli 'war bonds' over human rights concerns. Advertisement Last month, a Sinn Féin bill which sought to stop the Irish Central Bank facilitating the sale of Israeli 'war bonds' was defeated after the Government voted against the draft legislation. On Wednesday, the Dáil will vote on a motion on the matter brought by a number of opposition parties during the Social Democrats' time. The motion says the bonds are intended to fund the war in Gaza and argues Ireland ha obligations under the Genocide Convention to use all means likely to have a deterrent effect on those suspected of preparing genocide. Speaking to reporters today, Social Democrats TD Sinéad Gibney said: 'We have failed as an international community to prevent a genocide from happening so now we have to do everything in our power to make sure that we stop it.' She added: 'We are urging the Government to allow a free vote, a vote of conscience, because we believe that this is something that many TDs will support if given the opportunity. 'And we absolutely urge the Government to support this motion.' Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe said he believes the gap between the vote on the Sinn Féin Bill and this motion will give TDs 'time to reflect'.
