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Irish Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
Britain's ambassador Whatshisname takes Darragh O'Brien's gaffe like a diplomat
The British ambassador is hanging up his credentials in September. Guests at His Excellency's annual summer garden party on Thursday night were all saying the same thing: 'We will never forget Whatshisname.' That's not true. It was only the VIP guest speaker who forgot Ambassador Paul Johnston's name. READ MORE Everyone else was mortified for Minister for Transport Darragh O'Brien, who sailed through most of his speech oblivious to the fact that he kept calling his host 'Jonathan'. He did it four times before his audience snapped and shouted at him to stop. Darragh set the tone early, addressing his remarks to 'Ambassador Jonathan and Nicola, two very good friends of mine ...' Oops. Never mind. But it didn't stop there. Paul had followed the Irish custom of leaving a statue of the Child of Prague outside in the garden the night before his event to ensure good weather, the Minister said. And how did Darragh know this? 'Actually, Jonathan texted me this morning.' Guests were on tenterhooks, waiting for the next clanger. Mainlining the Pimms for their nerves. 'It is magnificent to be here in Glencairn again with Jonathan on this special occasion to celebrate the official birthday of King Charles III,' Darragh chirruped to the large gathering on the lawn of the Ambassador's South Dublin residence. In an address highlighting the close relationship and many ties between Ireland and the UK, he said King Charles had been 'a real friend to Ireland, through difficult times as well'. Then he name-dropped about having had the pleasure of meeting the king's late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who, in turn, had the pleasure of Darragh talking to her about horse racing 'for a good 20-minute conversation'. Apparently, people couldn't get over it. Darragh O'Brien had guests listening to every word, but not for the right reason. Photograph: Alan Betson As nice, friendly speeches go, this one was a white knuckle ride for all concerned – except Darragh, who wasn't to know his audience was tensely awaiting his next misnaming of the man from His Majesty's Foreign Office. 'I think the outlook is extremely bright for our nations,' he burbled, mercifully nearing the end of his address. '[But] I am really sad that Jonathan and Nicola will be leaving us soon – that I have to say.' That is when the crowd intervened. 'Paul! It's Paul! It's Paul!' they cried. 'Wha? Wha? I actually know him very well,' Darragh laughed, covered in embarrassment. 'My apologies.' He asked the guests to join him in raising a glass 'to partnership, to happiness and health and to King Charles III'. Glasses clinked. 'And Jonathan.' The ambassador, as one would expect of a career diplomat, took it very well. There were cheers when JP (Jonathan/Paul) began his remarks by thanking 'Brian' for his kind words. Turning to his wife, he declared: 'It's a great pleasure for Nicola and me – it is Nicola, isn't it? – to welcome all of you to Glencairn for the king's birthday party.' The attendance included Ministers, TDs, senators, the Attorney General, European Commissioner Michael McGrath, members of the Diplomatic Corps and an eclectic selection of guests from business, the arts and the media. 'While I'm sad to be leaving this job in September, I am happy that the relationship between the two governments – which matters a lot to me personally and matters to our country – and the relationship between Britain and the EU are in a much healthier state than when I arrived here in 2022,' said the outgoing ambassador, who spoke very fondly of his time here. The Johnstons are so fond of the place they have decided to stay . This was Paul's bombshell 'little bit of news' at the end of his speech. The crowd seemed quite moved, his words sparking a rush of national pride and a rush for the English sparkling wine when he finished. Naturally, the South Co Dublin crowd was very blase about it all. Apparently there have been regular sightings of Paul and Nicola in the furniture shops of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown in recent months and everyone in Dalkey knows about it. 'My wife and I decided sometime back that when it came to our eventual retirement, we would like to retire to Dublin because we've so fallen in love with the city and the country and the people,' Paul told us after he had toasted the President of Ireland. So when the opportunity for early retirement came up, he decided to leave the Foreign Office for a new job here. 'We are very excited by it and very happy to be staying here. We were really sort of dreading to have to leave Ireland.' When he first got here from a posting in Brussels, he assumed he would do his four years and then move back to London or a new posting further afield. 'But we fell in love with Ireland, I suppose. We fell in love with life here and the idea of working here. It was a combination of things, but it seriously had not entered our head until we came here.' The soon-to-be-former ambassador can't disclose details of his new job yet. But our spies tell us he may be heading for the third-level sector and a role with the Irish Universities Association, which is headed up by the experienced Jim Miley, a former Fine Gael secretary and chief executive of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and one of the co-founders of Better class of sewage on southside During Leaders' Questions on Wednesday, Barry Heneghan, the Independent Government-supporting TD for Dublin Bay North, had an important question about the quality of water in the bay. Jim O'Callaghan, the Minister for Justice, was on stand-in duty for his party leader. Jim represents the other side of Dublin Bay. Barry said there had been 'a huge issue with recently which 'needs to be looked at by the Government'. That sounds like a lovely job for somebody. 'It is not happening on the south side of Dublin,' Barry said. 'It is northside swimmers who are being affected by Jim immediately rushed to the defence of his tribe. 'I think the Deputy said it is northside swimmers who are being affected. Southside swimmers are affected as well by We are not immune to on the south side of Dublin.' It's just a better class of turd. Big Jim also did a good job of buttering up gardaí during his stint in the hot seat. But even the most partisan member of the force would have been a bit taken aback by Jim's effusive vote of confidence. He was speaking after Fine Gael's Emer Currie asked about garda numbers outside Dublin city centre. While there is a welcome increased visibility in the city, in areas such as her Dublin West constituency and in other parts of the country people are crying out for more gardaí to tackle low-level offending, antisocial behaviour and more serious crime. Emer Currie was told more gardaí are on their way. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill The Minister for Justice replied that the Garda Commissioner has decided that a significant number of recruits will be put in Dublin in the first instance, but others will be transferred to other parts of the country as well. This all depends on recruiting more people into the force. A recent recruitment campaign saw 6,700 people express an interest in joining up, but that needs to be translated into membership. 'The biggest problem gardaí have is their popularity and their success. People want to see them everywhere.' That's a line you don't hear every day. Poor Brendan gets cancelled The Oireachtas occasionally runs information and education sessions for TDs and senators to help them in their work – a kind of in-service training sessions for the politicians. After the last general election, for example, new TDs were invited to attend a briefing on life in Leinster House from two experienced old hands: former Social Democrat leader Catherine Murphy and former Fine Gael minister Richard Bruton. Recently, the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission – which in effect manages the place – asked former Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin to deliver a talk to its members on his experience as a member of the first commission which placed control for the running of Leinster House directly into the hands of the members. After 42 years in national politics – four of them in the Seanad and the rest in Dáil Éireann, he was well placed to give an overview of how the commission has worked over the years and how it has changed since the legislation was first passed. Former Labour leader Brendan Howlin is well versed in the ways of the Oireachtas. Photograph: Gareth Chaney/Collins As a former minister for public expenditure, he was also well placed to talk about how Leinster House is funded. The meeting was supposed to happen on May 28th. But two days beforehand he was told it was postponed. Nobody seems to know why. The all-powerful chair of the Oireachtas Commission is Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy, the Independent TD for Wexford, Brendan Howlin's former constituency. She runs the show. Some members are wondering if there might be a connection here with Brendan's sudden cancellation. Because TDs can be remarkably territorial when it comes to their home patch. Surely not. Timmy takes to top Tom It's taken a while, but the junior minister for agriculture has appointed a new special adviser. Timmy Dooley is thinking big with his new hire. He has drafted in a major player in the agriculture and marine sector to run the show – Tom Tynan has worked at the highest levels across a range of business and policy areas for a number of decades. In the 1990s he was special adviser to Ivan Yates, then minister for agriculture, while more recently he was a key member of former European commissioner Phil Hogan's cabinet in Brussels for almost seven years. A former senior Irish Farmers' Association official and member of the board of Teagasc, Tom is non-executive director of the Marine Institute, Shannon Foynes Port Company and the Agri-Food Bioscience Institute in Northern Ireland. Timmy is delighted with his new team member. 'He's a great man – very professional with highly technical skills. Tom brings great experience, particularly as most of the work from a fisheries perspective is in Brussels. He also has great knowledge of the negotiating process there and of the internal workings of the commission. And being political as well is always a help.' The Minister of State from Clare must be hoping that Kilkenny man Tom might just be the fellah to elevate him from the ranks of the junior ministers to senior hurling status. While looking after a Fianna Fáil politician will make a nice change for Tom.
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Dublin transport contactless payment system not operational until 2029, says minister
Contactless payments across Dublin's bus, tram and railway public transport networks will not be fully operational until 2029, Darragh O'Brien has told an Oireachtas hearing. The first testing phase of the 'next-generation ticketing' contactless payments system will be introduced in 2027 in a 'controlled area within Dublin across bus, rail and Luas', the Minister for Transport told Wednesday's Oireachtas hearing on 2025 transport estimates. A second phase is scheduled to run in summer 2028, with a third one to follow in 2029, he said. 'Obviously how we roll it out will be dependent on the first phase – if that goes well and the testing of that is robust and we don't require many system changes,' Mr O'Brien said in response to a query on the system from Green Party leader Roderic O'Gorman. 'By 2027 to 2029 we would have the system fully operational.' READ MORE The Minister said he was investigating whether it was possible to 'shorten the distance' between the first two testing phases, but he could not give a commitment on that. 'It is a roll-out of, effectively, a whole new contactless ticketing system that's going to be with us for a generation and will make a very significant change.' A National Transport Authority report published this year stated contact payments on public transport would take about three years to deliver. Spanish company Indra is responsible for the introduction of the contactless system across bus, tram and rail services. Asked by Fine Gael TD Grace Boland whether the Government planned to maintain the 90-minute €2 fare beyond the end of this year, Mr O'Brien said it was his 'intention to keep that'. The Minister also referred to the extension of free travel for five- to eight-year-olds from September and extending student travel fares to 25-year-olds. Anecdotally, recent fare reductions have resulted in more people taking public transport, the Minister said. However, it was difficult to quantify how many people were opting for bus or rail as a result of such price cuts, he said. Recently published data showed more than one million public transport journeys are now taken in Dublin daily. The Oireachtas committee also heard how the number of electric-vehicle (EV) charging points across the State remained far behind the European Union average. At present, there are seven EV charging posts for every 10,000 people, compared to an EU average of 20 per 10,000 and 13 per 10,000 in the UK, Sinn Féin's Pa Daly told the committee. People needed to have 'confidence that the battery will take them far enough, but also that they'll be able to recharge around the State', Mr Daly said. He also cited a recent warning from the Climate Change Advisory Council that the Government did not support access for lower-income families to EVs, which jeopardised emissions targets. Acknowledging that the number of charging points was below the EU average, Mr O'Brien said his department was addressing the shortfall and investigating EV grant options for lower and middle-income families and for rural dwellers. Asked if this would include grants for second-hand EVs, Mr O'Brien said it would. Earlier on Wednesday, the Minister told Newstalk Breakfast radio he did not expect the State would hit its projection of one million EV users by 2030, but said numbers would most likely reach 630,000-700,000 by the end of the decade. Responding to concerns from Mr O'Gorman regarding the 'almost systematic removal of references to cycling in this programme for government', Mr O'Brien told the committee the TD could 'be absolutely assured that this Government is as committed as the last to continue the real advancements that were made over the last five years in the provision of active travel schemes'. In addition to the Government's commitment to spend €360 million on public transport infrastructure, Mr O'Brien said his department would seek additional funds through the updated National Development Plan to improve 'active travel'.
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
CIÉ passenger numbers climbed to pre-Covid high during 2024
The number of passengers using CIÉ companies exceeded pre-pandemic levels in 2024, signalling a strong recovery in public transport use, the Cabinet has been told. Darragh O'Brien , Minister for Transport, told the weekly Cabinet meeting that CIÉ (Córas Iompair Éireann) revenue increased to €1.84 billion in 2024, an increase of €162 million compared with 2023. The number of journeys completed also reached record levels, with almost 322 passenger journeys recorded. The revenue of Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail) also increased to €667 million with 50.7 passenger numbers. READ MORE Bus Éireann matched it in revenue, bringing in a total of €671 million through 111 million journeys. There were 159 million passenger journeys on Dublin Bus in 2024, yielding revenue of €360 million in revenue. It came as the body which gives advice to Government on State agencies said governance should be aligned across all existing CIÉ companies. NewEra carried out a review for Government of CIÉ governance, which began in 2022. Various governance options were examined around varying levels of CIÉ control versus autonomy for Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann, and Iarnród Éireann. The option of aligning governance across all to existing CIE standards was the preferred option, Mr O'Brien told Cabinet colleagues.
Irish Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
Dublin Airport will eventually exceed 40 million passengers a year, Minister for Transport predicts
Imposing annual passenger caps on Dublin Airport will be 'arbitrary' as even the 40 million cap being sought by airport operator DAA will be surpassed within a short period, Minister for Transport Darragh O'Brien says. The cap of 32 million passengers a year, which has been in place since 2008, was breached in 2023 and 2024. Mr O'Brien said the number of passengers passing through the airport was likely to exceed 36 million this year. He said it was a clear aim in the Programme for Government to end the restriction on passenger numbers. READ MORE 'I want to see the cap in Dublin Airport removed. I think any artificial stifling of growth within Dublin Airport, it would be counterproductive for the country,' he said. Last week, Fingal County Council, which is the local authority with responsibility for the airport, issued an enforcement notice that gave DAA a two-year period to comply with the planning conditions imposed by An Bord Pleanála in 2008. However, there is a High Court-imposed stay pending the outcome of proceedings taking by a number of airlines against the cap. Mr O'Brien said that stay was likely to remain until the second half of next year. He said the Government was now working on a new National Aviation Policy to address the issues of the volume of traffic around the State's main airport hub. He said a key ruling by An Bord Pleanála on night flights at the airport – expected within weeks – would be critical. At present no flights are allowed to take off from or land on the north runway between 11pm and 7am. The night-time movements of aircraft in the airport are restricted to 65 overall. DAA has applied for those restrictions to be eased and there is expectation that aircraft will be allowed on the north runway between 6am and midnight daily. This change has been strongly opposed by residents living in St Margaret's and The Ward, two communities located at the perimeter of the airport. Mr O'Brien, a TD for the constituency, said he was very conscious of the concerns of those communities and the challenges they faced. 'I've been at pains to say to DAA to operate under the good neighbour principle,' he said. He said some people in the St Margaret's area were in effect living right beside the runway. He said the airport should improve its voluntary purchase package as the impact was significant on a small number of households. 'They can't be forgotten,' he said. However, Mr O'Brien said the airport needed to expand and that included passenger numbers. He said if decision on night flights was in favour of expanding the hours then that would help passenger numbers grow. 'A total of 3 per cent of GDP comes from activity around the airport campus. It's a critical driver for economic growth, and supports about 20,000 jobs directly and about 130,000 indirect jobs.' He said basing numbers on forward projections over 10 years the number of passengers would exceed 40 million each year before then. 'One should ask the question, if DAA applies for a passenger cap of 40 million how long will that last? Is that cap going to be [surpassed]? Therefore should you have an arbitrary cap?' Mr O'Brien also said he had consulted Attorney General Rossa Fanning and may bring forward legislation to prevent what he sees as overly restrictive limits. He said the cap was put in 2008 as a response to inadequate transport infrastructure at the airport. He said the situation had changed since then, with a change in terms of roads, public transport and access.
Irish Times
18-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Will rent reform hitting holiday lets irk Coalition's own Ministers?
Last month, the secretary general at the Department of Environment, Climate and Energy stepped in at the last minute for her Minister, Darragh O'Brien, at a clean energy event. She told the event that data centres were eating up all of our energy supply. With this one throwaway comment, Oonagh Buckley attracted more headlines and political attention than most senior civil servants would be comfortable with. 'We're having to even think about prioritising what is the social need of the demand – is it housing or is it AI?' she asked. 'We're going to have to think much more about managing demand.' READ MORE As existential questions about our infrastructure continue to plague the Government, Jack Horgan-Jones is reporting in our lead story today that data centres would be able to use 'private wires' to power themselves independently from the ESB power grid. Big energy users would be able to build and operate electricity infrastructure, including between power sources and data centres, under a policy that will be published next month. It comes after Sean O'Driscoll, head of the ESRI and a member of the Government's new infrastructure tax force, warned on Tuesday that Ireland cannot expect to attract companies 'like Apple, Microsoft, Google into Ireland and say to them: 'we'd like some of your jobs, but we're not going to provide you with data centres.' We can provide them with data centres if we invest in our infrastructure,' he said. On the subject of infrastructure, Michael McDowell also has an interesting column today on how to reform our planning system and neuter the constant issue of judicial reviews being taken against planning decisions. RPZs The Government promised us that it wasn't afraid to take unpopular decisions on housing. It probably didn't anticipate them being unpopular with their own ministers, though. We are reporting this morning that thousands of short-term holiday lettings on the west coast and elsewhere will require planning permission as a result of emergency laws extending Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) nationwide by the end of this week. Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and, more importantly, Kerry TD, Michael Healy-Rae tells The Irish Times that he is 'extremely concerned' about the impact this policy would have on his constituency. In advance of the law changing, Killarney is the only part of Kerry currently covered by RPZs. This means that the entire Kerry coastline from Listowel down to Kenmare is dotted with Airbnb style lettings, which may be crucial to rural tourism, which will all now be forced to apply for planning permission. Asked if he wished to comment, Mr Healy-Rae did in his own inimitable style: 'Isn't it a major concern of mine?' This issue likely won't escape the notice of senior Government ministers hailing from some of Ireland's most bucolic constituencies, including Kerrywoman Norma Foley, who are almost certain to face ferocious representations from unhappy Airbnb hosts on this issue. Trouble could also be brewing between two ministerial James' on the impact RPZ reforms will have on students. At a press conference yesterday, Minister for Housing James Browne told reporters that there will be no special exemption for students under new RPZ legislation. This was despite an appeal for such an exemption coming from Minster for Further and Higher Education James Lawless. The pair had been due to meet yesterday, but that has been deferred to next week. Immigration Elsewhere in the paper, Conor Gallagher and Martin Wall are reporting on the decision agreed at Cabinet yesterday to buy the Citywest Hote l and make it a permanent processing centre for International Protection Applicants. As the annual bill for using private providers to accommodate people who come to Ireland seeking asylum has breached €1 billion a year, Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan is under pressure to find ways to provider 14,000 State-owned beds for asylum seekers by 2028. Buying Citywest will cost the State €148.2 million, but Mr O'Callaghan has predicted that the Government 'will have got our money back in terms of the investment' after four years. The company that runs the hotel received more than €18 million between January and March of this year, for accommodating both international protection applicants and Ukrainian refugees. And finally, Joe Brennan is reporting in Business on the Government moving yesterday to lift the State's remaining €500,000 executive pay cap at bailed-out banks after selling its remaining shares in AIB. Best Reads With the inauspicious image of a fox who drowned in the fountain outside Government buildings yesterday, Miriam Lord writes about the Groundhog Day style stagnant exchanges between Opposition and Government on the perma-crisis of housing While writing about the Irish presidency, the job that nobody seems to want, Kathy Sheridan offers up a rollicking read on the delirious days of the 2011 election. And Sally Hayden is reporting from Beirut on the 'sense of panic and deepening fears of a wider conflict' in the Middle East, with aerial attacks and missiles being fired between Israel and Iran Playbook The Dáil schedule today is being dominated by emergency legislation to extend RPZs to the entire country. After a housing rally outside Leinster House last night, Labour published its own emergency amendments to the legislation which it says would introduce a two year rent freeze and fine landlords up to €100,000 for breaking the law. The Dáil schedule looks like this: 09.00 Topical Issues 10.00 Private Members' Business is a Motion from the Independent and Parties Technical Group on public transport experiences 12.00 Leaders' Questions 12.34 Other Members' Questions 12.42 Questions on policy or legislation 13.12 Motions without debate, which is Finance (Local Property Tax and Other Provisions) (Amendment) Bill 2025 – Financial Resolution. 14.13 Government business, which is devoted to getting through second stage, committee stage and remaining stages of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill 2025, the new RPZ reforms 19.47 Government business then moves to committee stage of the Mental Health Bill 2024 22.17 Deferred division on the: Criminal Law (Prohibition of the Disclosure of Counselling Records) Bill 2025, Ruth Coppinger's bill to ban the use of counselling notes in rape trials The Seanad schedule looks like this: 10.30 Commencement matters 11.30 Order of Business 14.00 Government business, first slot of which is for Statements on Food Promotion and New Markets 15.30 Followed by another Government business slot, for Statements on the Farrelly Commission Report 17.00 Private Members' Business, which is a motion on enterprise matters and business supports for SME's It's a busy day for Committees, with all of the following taking place on the Leinster House campus today: the HSE are appearing before the disability matters committee, Hiqa and the minister for older people are appearing before the health committee to answer questions on nursing homes, the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign will be talking to politicians about the Israeli Bond Programme and the Committee on Social Protection will hear from the ESRI, which is proposing a new Child Benefit tier to challenge child poverty. This comes after the Taoiseach signalled this week that such a measure is on the table for Budget 2026. You can read the full committee schedule here .
