The year is flying in.
Easter lilies are blooming – bright enamel pins and delicate paper stickies push through springtime lapels to sway in the light of the Sinn Féin benches. New deputies gambol on the plinth, kicking up their heels for the social media.
Senator Rónán Mullen is doing the rounds, selling knitted chicken cosies for charity, complete with incubating Creme Eggs. Any time now, the Dáil should hear mention of the first cuckoo fund of spring. The air feels warmer: when the clocks went forward, the speaking rights row went back.
Finally, after such a barren and dispiriting beginning to the first months of the 34th Dáil, parliament is finally getting around to discussing issues of national and international importance.
Ireland will ‘resist’ EU trade tax on US tech firms, says Taoiseach
A Barry Heneghan brag and a brazen wheeze by the Soc Dems reveal a lot about Irish politics
Taoiseach would put Irish boots on the ground in Ukraine peacekeeping force
Richard Boyd Barrett on his cancer treatment: ‘It is going to be very difficult to eat. That is what worries me most’
Problems in health and housing haven’t gone away. War continues in Gaza and Ukraine. A global economic crisis is at the gates.
The Dáil is beginning to knuckle down at last. But it’s April already and not a committee in the House washed. And with the Easter recess beginning next week, it looks like it will be another month before the committees, which need to be up and running for the Dáil to function properly, are in place.
Not good.
But at least the political temperature has cooled for now in Leinster House.
Issues to the fore on Tuesday were the report on governance and oversight at Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) and the use of unauthorised springs in spinal surgery at Temple Street Children’s Hospital. Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald said it contained “a damning litany of failure” and called for “accountability all round”.
[ Spinal surgeries report: The story behind the springs used on childrenOpens in new window ]
The Taoiseach was all for accountability but, unlike Mary Lou, who said the issue was known for a number of years and raised at the highest level, including in the Dáil, he didn’t want to bring politics into the mix.
“Let’s call a spade a spade here – what happened shouldn’t have happened,” said Micheál Martin.
His thoughts went out to the three children and their families who underwent these operations in Temple Street. “The trauma they are going through is incomprehensible.”
But, in his view, the fundamental issue was that unapproved devices were implanted by the clinician and the responsibility “lies with the individual in the first instance”.
At this point, in another health-related setting, Micheál might have taken the opportunity to mention that he was the pioneering minister who introduced the world’s first workplace smoking ban. But it wouldn’t work here.
Still, he was still able to parp his trumpet by pointing out that when the issue was first raised in the Dáil by People Before Profit’s Paul Murphy, the minister of the day set up an inquiry. That’s what the Health Information Quality Authority is there for, explained Micheál. “I established that myself many years ago to make sure there was an external independent body to investigate and to ensure quality within our healthcare setting.”
Just saying, like.
So, in a way, Mary Lou should have been thanking him.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik wondered what assurances the Taoiseach could offer to business owners, farmers, workers and consumers amid the “imminent and ongoing threat” of US president Donald Trump’s tariffs.
She answered the question herself and an anxious nation heaved a sigh of relief.
“We know the Tánaiste is flying today to meet Trump’s commerce secretary. The agriculture minister is in the US already,” noted Ivana, thanking Micheál for offering to brief Opposition leaders later this week on what the Government will be doing to counter the Trump madness. Simon Harris and Martin Heydon are on the case in Washington. No need to panic.
April 9th. That’s a special date for Simon. As we said, this year is just flying in. Just like last year. Twelve months ago, Simon was also on the move. It was the day he was appointed taoiseach and he travelled from Leinster House to the Phoenix Park to collect his seal of office from President Michael D Higgins.
[ Possible supports for industries hurt by tariffs ‘under review’, Harris saysOpens in new window ]
Wednesday sees him in Washington as Tánaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs and taoiseach-in-waiting-in-rotation. A lot of job titles in a short period of time for a man who suddenly found himself leading Fine Gael after then taoiseach Leo Varadkar came back from Washington that March and made the bombshell announcement that he was stepping down and leaving politics.
So much can happen so quickly in politics. Time moves so fast. Things happen fast. A Dáil in turmoil since the start of the political year. A blazing row over speaking rights. Bitter exchanges. Unmerciful ructions in the chamber. An unprecedented confidence vote in the Ceann Comhairle.
As is the way, an uneasy truce settles. Normal hostilities resume. Donald goes doolally in the White House. Ministers fly Stateside on mercy missions.
Now potential presidential candidates, burnishing their credentials for the Áras, are creeping from the woodwork. The names and numbers game is already beginning.
Always something going on. Always a reason for going toe to toe in the chamber.
But on Tuesday, when TDs gathered for Leaders’ Questions, something else was going on in the background. It was the intrusion of reality. That’s not to say that deputies were not interrogating reality in their questions and subsequent discussions, holding up a mirror to it on the floor of the Dáil.
But this was different. This was not about other people’s crises or institutional failings or an intractable international conundrum. This was not about broad policy issues or serious economic questions or the condition of the roads.
It was the news that Richard Boyd Barrett, long-time TD and familiar foghorn of People Before Profit, has been diagnosed with throat cancer. He spoke about it on Monday morning in a radio interview with RTÉ’s Claire Byrne.
Ivana Bacik was first to wish him well, mentioning how he “spoke very movingly and bravely about his diagnosis and treatment”.
The Taoiseach added his own and his party’s “very best wishes” for a full recovery as he goes through treatment.
“We have had many a good joust in the House,” said Micheál of his socialist sparring partner, with some understatement.
“Likewise,” smiled Ivana.
And for the rest of the day, Richard’s colleagues from all sides joined in the good wishes.
A rare stillness in time for Dáil Éireann.
