IT WOULDN’T BE the first day of a new Dáil without a Healy Rae hooley and this year, Danny Healy Rae was on entertainment duty outside the gates of Leinster House with his accordion.
While it would appear some things never change in Leinster House, there were lots of new faces making their way across the plinth this morning for their first day of school (well, in the Dáil).
There are 64 new time TDs joining the 34th Dáil, with many attending today alongside their families. In fairness, it’s a moment of pride for friends and family, so they have every right to celebrate.
Young children are not a common sight in the halls of the Irish parliament, but there were plenty around the place today, holding hands with their mums and dads who are newly elected TDs.
Little smallies could also be heard giggling away in the public gallery looking down on the Dáil’s proceedings as TDs gathered together for the first time.
Leinster House was a hive of activity with the arrival of newly elected TDs, while the veteran TDs joked that this isn’t their first rodeo.
One TD, who knows the place well, didn’t expect to be a victim of crime on his return to the Dáil today.
Sinn Féin TD Ruairí Ó Murchú was in fact pickpocketed today.
Ó Murchú’s wallet was snatched from his hands while he was on the Leinster House plinth… by a seagull.
Fear not, the wallet was dropped after the Louth TD chased down the seagull. He’s no doubt not the first victim of seagull crime in the city centre. Politicians in the past have said the seagulls in Dublin have “lost the run of themselves” and this would seem to be a prime example.
This sea gull swooped down and swiped Sinn Féin TD Ruairí Ó Murchú’s wallet on the Dáil plinth just now, but he dropped after an energetic chase from the Louth TD. pic.twitter.com/ab0ripZqCB
— Mícheál Lehane (@MichealLehane) December 18, 2024
Aside from seagull attacks, the new TDs were brimming with excitement to get going.
Fianna Fail TD for Roscommon-Galway Martin Daly, a GP, said he came to Leinster House two weeks ago to get settled in.
“Certainly it is a change of atmosphere and it is outside of my own experience previously, but you settle in fairly quickly. I’m very excited now to sit in the Dail for the first time,” he said.
Asked about the issues that would dominate the term, he said: “I think this next government will live or die on how it handles the housing crisis.
Grace Boland, a new TD for Dublin Fingal-West, said: “The work starts. I look at my seven-year-old twin girls and I realise we need good people in politics, we need people who have commercial experience who have life experience, who understand the juggle, the struggle, childcare, access to healthcare, education, special education, and these are all the reasons why I ran.”
Labour’s Alan Kelly spoke to The Journal about the passing of his father in the last week, stating that returning to the Dáil today is particular poignant and special to him.
Kelly said it is a great privilege to be re-elected as a TD and that the return of the Dáil is always a special day.
— Jane Matthews (@janeematthews) December 18, 2024
“It’s particularly a poignant day for me because I lost my Dad last week, so thinking of him a lot today,” he told @thejournal_ie pic.twitter.com/4fIE3DRubn
A husband and wife, who were both elected to Dáil Eireann, also entered Leinster House, stating that it is “a rare experience”.
Colm Brophy, a TD for Dublin South-West, and Maeve O’Connell, a TD for Dublin Rathdown, said ahead of the Dail’s first meeting that they were looking forward to the coming term.
Ruth Coppinger, who arrived at Leinster House wearing a keffiyeh, said that the Irish government’s gestures had been symbolic to date and that direct action was needed when it came to Palestine.
The first item on the agenda today was the election of a new Ceann Comhairle. There was a giddy atmosphere in the Dáil chamber as TDs took their seat.
Notably, Social Democrats Dublin Bay South TD Eoin Hayes, who was suspended from the party last week, was seated on his own in the the section of the chamber for Independents. Surely not how he saw his first day going.
Mary Lou McDonald looked at Hayes sitting on his own today, before looking up at members of the press on the gallery, sticking her bottom lip out and making a sad face.
She had her own vote today, in a bid to become the next Taoiseach, but it was a damp squib as it was a certainty that the Sinn Féin leader would not have enough votes to get her through.
But there were ‘Apprentice-style’ vibes to the Ceann Comhairle competition today as each candidate vying for the job stood to make their pitches to members of the House.
TDs took part in a secret ballot, in what was the final election of 2024.
As the tallies were totted up, it became clear that Murphy was home free with first preference votes.
One of the most notable items of today was that of the 173 votes (there would be 174, but Holly Cairns was not present as she is on maternity leave), one vote was spoiled.
The reason given by the Dáil clerk was that there was no first preference stated on the form.
There was consternation at this in the room off the Seanad where the votes were being counted, as this means that one of the TDs in this new Dáil did not fill out their voting form appropriately. Quite the start.
After being deemed elected and after putting on the Ceann Comhairle robes, one of Murphy’s first actions in the new role was intervening when Tánaiste Micheál Martin went over his speaking time, cutting him off, and stating that she is going to “start as she means to go on”.
In her pitch for the job today, Murphy quoted former politician Avril Doyle, who said politics is the last bloodsport.
We will have to wait and see whether such a remark proves correct for this 34th Dáil.
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