Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has announced a minor reshuffle of her frontbench, with two first-time TDs promoted.
Louth TD Joanna Byrne has been appointed as the party’s spokeswoman for arts, media and culture while Clare TD Donna McGettigan has been appointed as spokeswoman for further and higher education.
A number of senior TDs will remain in their existing portfolios including Donegal TD Pearse Doherty as spokesman for finance, Waterford TD David Cullinane as health spokesman and Dublin Mid West TD Eoin Ó Broin as spokesman for housing. Cavan Monaghan TD Matt Carthy will become the party’s justice spokesman, while Kerry TD Pa Daly will move to cover climate, environment and energy.
[ Former Fianna Fáil minister ‘disappointed’ at number of women in CabinetOpens in new window ]
Speaking on Tuesday morning, Ms McDonald said she was making a “simple pledge” to the “working people of Ireland” that her party “will be up and at it from day one, working for you, non stop.”
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“We’ll hold this Government to account at every turn, call out every bad policy, every dodgy decision, every failure, and we will push for the major change of direction that is so badly needed in so many areas, in housing, in health, in childcare and in the response to the cost of living. There will be no let up.”
She said “it’s not simply our job to set out a theoretical platform, theoretical alternatives, although we will come with alternatives and plans, but we also need to take this Government on.”
Separately, the Sinn Féin leader said her party would not be backing down in the ongoing row over speaking rights, with Regional Independent convener Michael Lowry - who helped strike a government formation deal - also insisting he is entitled to Opposition privileges.
“There are no circumstances in which Michael Lowry should be allowed, or can be allowed, to pretend that he is a member of the Opposition.”
She said what is happening is “an insult to the collective intelligence of the Irish electorate.”
“We have a job to do as the Opposition and we will not allow Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to encroach on the Opposition, to blur the lines, to create confusion, and to pretend that one of their own TDs would be the one to hold them to account. That clearly cannot stand in any circumstances.”
Ms McDonald was also quizzed on her St Patrick’s Day plans and whether she would be travelling to the White House as would normally happen. She stopped short of saying this would be the case.
“We haven’t, obviously, received any invitations. There’s been a bit of speculation as to what’s going to unfold in the States. Generally, we go. We will see how things unfold. We are conscious of what’s happening in the Middle East.”
Sinn Féin has separately confirmed that a promised review of internal structures is near finalisation, with a memo circulated at a meeting of the Ard Comhairle last weekend.
The review was promised after two former party employees provided references for their ex-colleague Michael McMonagle, a former party press officer who has been convicted of child sex offences.
Ms McDonald said a key finding has been there can be “no ambiguity” around HR processes in future.
McMonagle was suspended from his job with Sinn Féin after he was arrested in August 2021, and in September 2022 was appointed to the role of communications and engagement manager with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) in Belfast. It emerged last year that the BHF told a senior Sinn Féin official, who worked in HR, about the references in 2023. The party maintained it only became aware of the references issue late last year.
The full list of Sinn Féin frontbenchers:
President: Mary Lou McDonald
Finance: Pearse Doherty
Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation: Mairéad Farrell
Foreign Affairs, Trade and Defence: Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire
Climate, Environment, Energy and Transport: Pa Daly
Education and Youth: Darren O’Rourke
Children, Disability and Equality: Claire Kerrane
Enterprise, Tourism and Employment: Rose Conway-Walsh
Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Louise O’Reilly
Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Joanna Byrne
Health: David Cullinane
Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Eoin Ó Broin
Justice, Homes Affairs and Migration: Matt Carthy
Agriculture, Food, Fisheries, and the Marine: Martin Kenny
Further and Higher Education,Research, Innovation and Science: Donna McGettigan
Gaeilge and Gaeltacht: Aengus Ó Snodaigh
Chief Whip: Pádraig Mac Lochlainn
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