The Floating Voter

This week’s Floating Voter podcast on Independent.ie took a look at how social media abuse should be tackled by the Government.

Fianna Fáil’s Niamh Smyth and Sinn Féin’s Louise O’Reilly shared their own experiences of some of the hate they have received online.

Deputy O’Reilly revealed that she was this week contacted by Gardaí who inquired about her home security.

She also said that she has been previously targeted by the now-removed Barbara J Pym Twitter account, which former Sunday Independent columnist Eoghan Harris admitted to helping to run.

Cavan Monaghan Deputy Smith, who is the chair of the Oireachtas Arts and Media Committee said that as part of pre-legislative scrutiny into the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill, anonymous accounts on social media should be banned.

She also said that as part of the new legislation, a new Commissioner would be set up which would examine complaints by individuals into online content.

The Commissioner would then work to remove harmful content faster.

“There have to be real sanctions put in place,” said Deputy Smyth.

“These orchestrated pile-ons have to be stopped and that would be what the new online safety commissioner would do,” she added.

Political Editor Philip Ryan and Ms O’Reilly also clashed on anonymous social media accounts after Mr Ryan said that he received a lot of hate online during his coverage of the Sinn Féin Abú database.

Mary Lou McDonald should answer “detailed questions” on Sinn Féin’s internal voter database to ensure her party is not carrying out “Cold War” like profiling of Irish citizens, Labour Party leader Alan Kelly has said.

Mr Kelly said revelations about Sinn Féin’s Abú system posed serious questions for Ms McDonald.

Speaking on Independent.ie’s Floating Voter podcast, the Tipperary TD said: “I think Mary Lou McDonald needs to come out front and face questions in relation to this - very detailed questions.”

“Effectively we need to know if we have a political party that's building a national database on individuals. This would strike back to stuff that was done in the bad times during the Cold War where there was a profile being done on every individual in the country and that would be really scary stuff,” Mr Kelly added.

Sinn Féin has refused to answer questions about where they are storing the information of potentially 3.5m voters, who is managing the system or how the database was funded.

The party has also refused to give any detail on how they have complied with data protection laws in creating a national voter database.

Details of the Abú system came after Independent.ie revealed Sinn Féin representatives were encouraged to “elicit” information from Facebook users which could be cross-referenced with their internal database to locate home addresses of potential supporters.

“I have never heard at a national level that a party is actually profiling every citizen in the State. If information is being stored by a constituency TD, for instance, and that information is being shared to a national system well then that is cause for serious concern,” Mr Kelly said.

“We don't have enough information and Sinn Féin have to answer questions as to whether this is within data protection law, within GDPR. Why is some of this potentially being stored outside the country,” he added.

Green Party Chairperson and Dublin Lord Mayor has admitted that while the chances of her winning a Seanad seat are slim, she has put herself forward for her daughter.

Cllr Hazel Chu is in the running as an independent candidate for a seat on the Commercial and Industrial panel, having failed to secure the backing of her party.

Following her move, there has been discontent in the Green Party, with three Senators putting forward three motions before the parliamentary party meeting last night, one of which was no confidence in the Chair.

Speaking on Independent.ie’s Floating Voter podcast, Cllr Chu said that it is important for her to run for the Seanad, despite a slim chance of winning, for her daughter Alex (3).

“If I’m to be able to look at my three and a half year old in the eye and tell her that we need better representation so that people would see that this is a good thing that people from different minority groups and genders should be in government office, this is what i need to do,” she said.

“It may be a fool’s errand, but on a personal level, and on a professional level, it’s really important to me.

“A lot of my colleagues support me because of that,” she said.

She also apologised for holding an event in St Stephen’s Green for journalists yesterday, where she officially launched her Seanad campaign.

The Irish Independent reports today that Cllr Chu did not seek permission from the Office of Public Works (OPW) to hold that event and that under 1962 bye-laws, political events are not permitted in the park.

“I am very sorry,” she said.

She added that she didn’t think she would get many people to “show” up at the briefing and didn’t realise that she had to seek prior permission.

“I emailed some people, I didn't think they would show up.

“I’m happy to apologise.”

Sinn Féin is taking disciplinary action against councillor Paddy Holohan after he failed to remove a Facebook post supporting a salon owner who reopened in breach of Covid-19 restrictions.

Senior Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty said there is a disciplinary procedure underway after Mr Holohan, who has previously been suspended from the party, failed to remove the post.

“This fella made a comment, we told him that comment isn’t in keeping with the party’s view, we told him to withdraw it, he isn’t doing so, there’s a disciplinary procedure, the party will deal with that,” Mr Doherty told Independent.ie’s The Floating Voter podcast.

In a post on his Facebook page last month, Mr Holohan described C&N Beauty Room owner Christine McTiernan as “inspiring” after she was arrested by gardaí for opening her business during Level 5 restrictions.

Mr Holohan has previously been suspended from the party over derogatory comments about women and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar. Mr Doherty said on Friday that while there was huge frustration with restrictions there was consensus around the need for the public health measures.

Elsewhere in a wide-ranging discussion, Mr Doherty said that Sinn Féin is preparing itself for a general election, noting there is a lot of internal tension in the coalition parties.

“Those things bring on elections, a leadership challenge in Fine Gael or indeed Fianna Fáil can actually bring on an election. Do I believe it [the Government] will last? I don’t know, all I know is that we’re getting ready, we’re selecting our candidates, we’re making sure we have enough candidates in the field," the party's finance spokesperson said.

He noted that the party had “left a number of seats behind us” in the last election because it did not run enough candidates in certain constituencies.

Mr Doherty also defended Sinn Féin’s role in failing to secure cross-border consensus on Covid-19 restrictions, insisting it was not possible because of the DUP’s reluctance. He said criticism of Sinn Féin for this was “like saying isn’t it terrible that Sinn Féin can’t convince the DUP that Brexit is bad”.

The Donegal TD criticised the UK government’s unilateral decision this week to extend post-Brexit grace periods for Northern Ireland without consultation with the EU, saying it was “really, really bad faith”.

He also said that the State had ‘no option” but to stop doing business with Davy Stockbrokers after it was hit with a record €4.1m fine by the Central Bank for regulatory breaches.

European nationalism has turned Ireland into “bureaucratic losers” in the race to vaccinate citizens, a Fianna Fáil TD has said.

Outspoken Sligo-Leitrim deputy Marc MacSharry said the EU “made a balls” of procuring vaccines and insisted Ireland should explore other ways to increase supply

Speaking on the Floating voter podcast, Mr MacShary also severely criticised the Government’s reliance on the EU for vaccines and called on the Taoiseach to ask Prime Minister Boris Johnson for any extra supplies the UK has left over.

He said the Government should extend the date between first and second vaccines so more people can be vaccinated now.

“There is an element of EU and nationalist pride in preventing us from reaching out because we need to be the goodie two shoes Europeans,” he said.

“The only good deal on vaccinations is a fast deal and Europe went off thinking they were procuring office supplies, played hard ball with prices and those global negotiating geniuses in Bahrain got up the queue, so did israel, so did a number of other countries while we were being good, cautious, bureaucratic, responsible losers.”

The long-time Fianna Fáil dissident also said he expects Micheál Martin to step down as party leader before the next election and said he will be supporting Jim O’Callaghan in a leadership contest.

“I think 12 years of a leader is enough, it needs to be refreshed and that's it. It's not personal, it's business. It's good business to change it,” he said.

He said there are “five or six people who are prepared to step forward” and replace Micheál Martin naming Dara Calleary, Darragh O'Brien, Jim O'Callaghan, Michael McGrath and Norma Foley.

However, he said he will be supporting Mr O’Callaghan because he is not “blinded by ambition” and is in politics to makes changes rather than personal gain. “Is the Micheál Martin who brought in the smoking ban the Micheál Martin who is Taoiseach - I'm not so sure,” he added.

Mr MacSharry there is no personal animosity between himself and Mr Martin but said they do "have issues about how things are managed" in the party. "I'm not entirely risk adverse but I think the Taoiseach probably is," he said. "He's much more cautious than is necessary in my view but it is certainly not personal."

He criticised what he called a “highly centralised environment where the top decide and formulate” policy and said he believes this is “Micheál Martin's failure”.

“If a backbencher or a senator comes up with a cure for cancer it is not going to get into the minutes unless it comes from a Tony Holohan or KPMG or Deloittes and that's a problem,” he added.

The Taoiseach should receive the coronavirus vaccine ahead of Cabinet colleagues to travel to the US, according to a Fine Gael Junior Minister.

Fine Gael Minister of State for Overseas Development Aid and Diaspora Colm Brophy said on Independent.ie’s Floating Voter podcast that Taoiseach Micheál Martin should be vaccinated to be able to travel to the US for the St Patrick’s Day visit.

Mr Brophy said that Cabinet Ministers should then be vaccinated as per the vaccine priority list and should be “no exception” to the list.

“I don’t think that with the exception of the Taoiseach and for the reason of the US visit, that Ministers should come anywhere different on the list to where they would be based on the criteria outlined by medical professionals,” he said.

Minister Brophy said that he is against changing the order of prioritisation on the vaccine list.

“Lots of people make the case all the time as to why we should maybe move this group up here or this group down or change it around. I've always had the same view that we shouldn't and that applies to Ministers as well.

“There’s a logical clear exception as to why the Taoiseach should [be vaccinated] - to facilitate St Patrick’s Day visit.”

He also raised the question of if certain Cabinet Ministers were to be vaccinated, how the decision would be made between the Minister for Health or members of Nphet.

“Everybody has important jobs, really important jobs.

“Where do you vaccinate the people in Nphet, the CMO? Where do you vaccinate the head of the HSE versus the Minister for Health? It just becomes almost an impossible scenario,” he added.

Minister Brophy also said on the podcast that the €500 fine for non-essential travel to overseas did not have a “sufficient” impact for some people, which is why the fine has been hiked to €2,000 in recent days.

“For some people, €500 wasn’t regarded as a sufficient impact and that’s why you have to have that flexibility. I don’t think there was anything wrong with choosing €500 as the initial figure.”

Criticism of government is “jumped on and stamped down” by internal Green Party “enforcers”, a TD has claimed.

She was speaking on the Independent.ie Floating Voter podcast about Cllr Peter Kavanagh’s statements after he left the party this week, where he stated that criticism of the party by members is viewed as “betrayal”.

“That resonated with me and I think that kind of, people within the party taking up the role as enforcer, that is a genuinely a problem,” she said.

“That doesn’t lead to an atmosphere within the party that’s nice, that’s a nice place to be.”

She said that criticism is sometimes “jumped on”.

“The enforcer mentality - any criticism has to be jumped on and stamped down immediately, for sure,” she said.

“I don’t want to raise the temperature, because that’s what we keep doing.”

She said that she was not interested in a “personal row” with other members of the party.

When asked if she has considered leaving the party, she said that this is “always a conversation” she has with herself.

“From the point of programme for government, which obviously this government does not reflect in my politics, that’s always a conversation that I’m having with myself.

“I am always trying to gauge, am I a more constructive force inside or outside?”

Ms Hourigan said that in her opinion, if you’re not “too comfortable” you’re not “doing your work”.

She also said that there have been votes along the way in her time in government that she has not been “quite happy about”.

Ms Hourigan voted against the government last summer and lost the party whip for a period of time.

“I’m very careful when I dissent, it’s only about very specific things, it doesn’t happen that often.”

She also said on the podcast that CETA was discussed at programme for government negotiations and was not agreed.

She said that this is included in her own notes, which are subject to a non-disclosure agreement.

A Fine Gael senator has detailed her experience with Covid-19, which saw her isolated in her room for days on end while her young children cried out for their mother.

Emer Currie tested positive for coronavirus in October. When she first started coughing, the Dublin politician did not believe she had been infected with the virus but went for a test as a precaution.

However, by the time the positive result came back, her cough had become more persistent and she was suffering a shortness of breath.

Speaking to Independent.ie’s Floating Voter podcast, Ms Currie said: “There is a split second when you think your breath should come back to you and it doesn’t, and that isn’t nice. There were some hairy moments.”

Once she received her diagnosis, the mother of two young daughters confined herself to her bedroom, where she worked on constituency queries and, during down time, watched the Netflix comedy Schitt’s Creek.

However, beyond the bedroom door normal family life continued and Ms Currie could only listen in.

“The toughest part is when the kids are tired and they want mummy to put them to bed and you can’t, or if they wake up in the middle of the night and want a cuddle,” she said.

“There were lots of tears because they didn’t understand why they can’t have this one reassuring cuddle from their mum,” she added.

In line with HSE guidelines, the senator contacted the Leinster House human resources department to let them know she had tested positive.

Three of her Fine Gael colleagues were asked to self-isolate because they were deemed close contacts.

“It is not a nice experience to be worried about your family, worried about your colleagues, to be worried about the kids and whether or not one of them picked something up in school or whether they would pass it on to somebody,” she added.

Ms Currie admits she did experience “return-to-work dread”, but was thankful that there was “no finger-wagging or finger-pointing” in Leinster House when she returned after recovering from the virus.

“Colleagues were very discreet and my party colleagues were very supportive,” she said.

Ms Currie urged people to follow the guidelines while continuing to regularly wash their hands and wear masks in public settings.

“I don’t know how I picked it up but I know I didn’t pass it on because I was following the guidelines,” she said.

'Hostility and aggression' amongst principals after Taoiseach announces plans for Leaving Certs to attend school three days a week

There is “hostility” among principals in reaction to government plans to allow Leaving Certs to attend school for three days a week, according to education spokesperson for the Social Democrats and Dublin Central TD Gary Gannon.

Speaking on Independent.ie’s political podcast The Floating Voter, the TD said that some principals were, in hyperbole, calling to storm on the Dáil “Trump style” in a meeting this morning.

“The level of hostility in general, aggression on the call, I think some of them were calling to storm the Dáil Trump style, to just have their voices heard. That was said in hyperbole but I mean, it was still said,” he said.

“The level, amongst teachers and amongst educators, there is a real capacity for industrial unrest here.”

He also said that there is a real need to move teachers and students up in the priority list for the coronavirus vaccine.

“Teachers are number 11 on the list at the moment.

“It would make a lot of sense if teachers were moved up that list, especially if we’re going to be keeping them in the environment that we’re keeping them in.”

Deputy Gannon said that despite government figures, including Education Minister Norma Foley, consistently saying that schools are safe, they have never said why they are safe.

Reacting to last night’s unrest in Washington DC after Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill, he said that we should not be “complacent” that a similar event could not happen here.

He also rubbished recent claims that the Social Democrats would join Labour, saying that leader Alan Kelly is like a “bull in a china shop”.

“It’s not something that we’re interested in.

“I don’t think our two cultures would merge easily,” he added.

The end of the year is nearly upon and what a year it has been in the world of politics.

If your memory stretches back far enough you might remember we had a General Election which resulted in a historic coalition between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party. Then there was a once in a life-time pandemic which shut down the entire planet.

There were political controversies aplenty at home – agriculture ministers fells like skittles and a golf outing led to constitutional crisis over a Supreme Court judge. Meanwhile, a Brexit deal was finally done and Donald Trump was voted out of the White House.

So it is only right and proper that Independent.ie’s Floating Voter podcast should reward our leaders for the political gambits, gaffes and general performances during what is now a cliché to call an unprecedented year.

Independent Newspapers political editor Philip Ryan, along with political correspondent Hugh O’Connell and Politics Team new recruit Gabija Gataveckaite debate the merits of each category and dish out the gongs to the lucky winners.

The nominations are below – listen into the podcast to find out who the winners are.

Agriculture minister of the year?

1. Michael Creed

2. Dara Calleary

3. Barry Cowen

4. Charlie McConalogue

Rule breakers of the year?

1. Golf gate attendees

2. Bobby Storey Funeral gang

3. RTÉ staff retirement crew

4. Leo the leak

Interview of the year?

1. Stephen Donnelly -Zara King

2. Mary Lou McDonald –Today with Claire Byrne

3. Leo Varadkar -Claire Byrne Live

Social media moment of the year

1. Topless Leo on the beer in the park

2. Brian Stanely’s ‘yippe for the tories’

3. David Cullinane’s fashion shoes

4. Micheal Martin’s mystery call with Joe Biden

Foolish statement of the year?

1. David Cullinane : Up the Ra

2. Simon Harris : Covids 1-18

3. Michéal Martin: Banks were not bailed out

Double act of the year?

1. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

2. Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill

3. Michéal Martin and Leo Varadkar

4. Tony Holohan and Ronan Glynn

Most disciplined party of 2020?

1. Sinn Fein

2. Green Party

3. Fine Gael

4. Fianna Fáil

Breakthrough politician of the year

1. Hazel Chu

2. Holly Cairns

3. Norma Foley

4. Catherine Martin

Leader of the year

1. Micheál Martin

2. Leo Varadkar

3. Eamon Ryan

4. Tony Holohan