EVERY WEEK, TheJournal.ie casts its eye over events inside and outside Leinster House that have got people talking.
As the saying goes: ‘You win some, you lose some.’ So here are our political winners and losers from the past seven days:
1. Leo Varadkar
The Health Minister has been on a media offensive this week – announcing the measures his department is taking to tackle increasing health insurance premiums and promising to help bring about legislation on surrogacy and egg and sperm donation.
He also had the perfect response to the Sunday Times exposing his fake Facebook account.
2. Richard Bruton
There has been great news on the jobs front this week, including several announcements yesterday. With almost 2,000 positions set to be created in Dublin, Wexford, Cork and elsewhere, it’s a good time to be the Jobs Minister.
3. Frank Flannery
The former Fine Gael strategist has scored his own weekly political podcast with retired RTÉ broadcaster Bill O’Herlihy.
Flannery quit his job as Fine Gael’s director of elections earlier this year amid controversies over his role as a lobbyist for the Rehab Group where he was a former CEO and board member.
When speaking to TheJournal.ie about his latest venture, he said he would aim to be objective, noting: “I find myself in an unusually luxurious position of being political detached, relatively speaking.”
He’s sure to have some interesting insights.
1. The Government
Rather than clear up the confusion that surrounds how much people are set to pay for water charges, Fine Gael and Labour appear to be at odds over the whole situation.
On Tuesday, Tánaiste Joan Burton said that a family of four, including two adult children, will likely face a bill of less than €200 per year. However, the next day Taoiseach Enda Kenny said Burton was speaking “in a personal capacity”, despite having made the comments in the Dáil.
In another twist in the seemingly never-ending saga of Irish Water, Labour senators backed an opposition motion to hold a referendum on public ownership of Irish Water.
Kenny and Burton attempted to dispel any rumours of tension between the coalition parties, insisting their relationship is “very strong”. Time will tell.
2. Barack Obama
In one of the biggest setbacks for Obama since he took office in 2009, the Republican party regained control of the Senate and won a number of key gubernatorial battles in the US mid-term elections.
3. Gregory Campbell
Democratic Unionist Party MP and MLA Gregory Campbell came under fire for mocking the Irish language in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
“Curry my yoghurt can coca coalyer,” Campbell mockingly said, poking fun at the Irish phrase: “Go raibh maith agat, Ceann Comhairle” which means “Thank you, Chairperson”.
After failing to apologise, he was banned from speaking at the Assembly the next day – but he wasn’t present anyway.
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