Julie Helen: 'In the corridors of Leinster House, very little is a surprise'

I first met Micheál Martin when I was a child, and he was Lord Mayor of Cork.

We were in City Hall and I remember him crouching down on his hunkers in front of me so that his heavy and impressive chain was at my level. He made a good first impression.

Later when I was a teenager and Micheál was Minister for Education, he sanctioned the funding for a lift in my school which was vital for me to continue and succeed in my education.

He was a Corkman and I have always known him to do his local politics well. When it comes down to it, Ireland is still all about local politics even on the national stage.

When Micheál Martin was Minister for Health, he brought in the smoking ban, which did have a huge impact on the whole country and something I have heard him say he is very proud of on many occasions.

I am happy for Micheál Martin that he gets to be Taoiseach now, even though technically he has already been in the role during the pandemic. There was a lack of ceremony at that time to keep everybody safe.

Of course there was an unusual event this time around too because the Martin family had to travel to Dublin on two consecutive days for the official events of becoming Taoiseach in Áras an Uachtaráin and Leinster House. This was because there were raucous scenes in our lower house, due to the row over speaking time for Independent TDs who have entered coalition in support of the Government.

There was objection to the plans for Independent TDs to have speaking time as opposition even though they are clearly in support of the Government parties after talks and negotiations.

I agree with the objections put forward in that those individuals should nail their colours to the mast when they are part of the coalition deal, however, the way the objection played out came across as embarrassing and disrespectful.

My heart went out to Verona Murphy in her first day in the job as Ceann Comhairle to have to deal with all that shouting and roaring, the type of behaviour I feel the phrase rírá agus ruaile buaile was made for, if the moments weren’t quite so tense.

My gut tells me that the way the Dáil was suspended a number of times was the intended outcome by the opposition. It was an orchestrated stunt to stall things and send a message.

If there is anything I learned in working closely with the last Government in advocating for disability rights it is that in the corridors of Leinster House, very little is a surprise, there is a lot of juggling and jostling but at least half of the people entering the chamber on the first day of proceedings knew what was going to go down but the circus had to play out for us all.

Thankfully the next day the real business could begin.

I am holding my breath a little when it comes to the brief of disability going forward.

I welcome that we have both a senior and a super junior minister with responsibility for disability though the breadth of knowledge of the two ladies in question remains to be seen. Both have experience in education and that worries me a bit, so too does the fact that all the headlines from the Programme for Government seem to hone in on special schools, special classes and adding to them.

I hope there is more meat on the bone than that, we will have to wait and see!