Government-supporting Independent TD Barry Heneghan has not ruled out voting against the Government’s Occupied Territories Bill if the proposed ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements does not include services as well as goods.
In an interview with The Irish Times, the Dublin Bay North TD also pushed back against Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s insistence last year that there is no “Heneghan deal” for his constituency in return for his support of the Coalition.
“They might not call it a deal down in Cork,” said Heneghan, referring to Martin’s home. “Maybe they call it shared priorities. But, in north Dublin, when someone supports Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to benefit and be in the best position to deliver for their constituents, let’s call that a deal.”
Heneghan has been vocal in speaking out against the war in Gaza. Last year he took part in a flotilla seeking to deliver aid to the Palestinian enclave during which he was detained by Israeli authorities for a day before being released.
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“There was a genocide going on. We all have an obligation, elected officials under the Geneva Convention, to do everything we can to stop it,” he said of his decision to join the flotilla.
There is a commitment in the Programme for Government to progress legislation prohibiting goods from Occupied Palestinian Territories.
In recent months the Opposition has put pressure on the Government to progress the Bill and also ensure that trade in services is banned, as was proposed in the original Occupied Territories legislation put forward by Independent Senator Frances Black in 2018.
However, there has been doubt raised recently that the Government’s legislation will include services, though the Taoiseach last month said there has been no decision taken on this.
Heneghan is clear in his view that a ban on trade in services should be included in the Coalition’s legislation.
Will he oppose the Bill in the Dáil if it does not include services?
“We’ll have to review it when it comes. I’ll speak to Frances Black. I’ll speak to everyone who wrote the Bill and see what is the reason that they’re only doing goods instead of goods and services,” he said.
He highlighted how the cross-party Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee recommended that services be included in the legislation and pointed out that he voted against the Government in the past on issues related to Palestine.
Asked if he is concerned that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael could cut him loose if he votes against the Bill, Heneghan said: “There’ll be tight votes ahead,” pointing out that his votes could still be needed by the Coalition, despite its often comfortable majority in many Dáil votes.
He said there could be instances when Dáil numbers could be tight, such as when there are absences from the Government benches due to illness or ministers attending meetings related to Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of this year.
Like other Independents supporting the Government, Heneghan is not shy about trumpeting instances where he believes he has delivered for his constituency.
In a recent press release headlined: “Heneghan delivers removal of dreaded sandbags in Clontarf,” he thanked Dublin City Council and independent Office of Public Works Minister Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran as a new temporary alternative flood defence solution was being installed.
During the interview Heneghan said he was called “Mr Sandbag” during his time as a Dublin city councillor due to the number of questions he asked on the topic.
He highlighted a form of 3D-printed flood defence that could encourage biodiversity and said he was endorsed by Seán Dublin Bay Loftus’s family and he will continue “that legacy” in relation to Dublin Bay. Loftus, who died in 2010, was a long-time environmental campaigner and former TD who changed his name by deed poll to Seán Dublin Bay Rockall Loftus.
Since the Coalition was formed a year ago, the Government has insisted there have been no constituency deals with Independents supporting it. The Taoiseach specifically denied there was a “Heneghan deal” in response to a press release the TD issued in April.
In the release, Heneghan welcomed a €240 million investment in Beaumont Hospital and St Joseph’s Hospital Raheny as part of the HSE capital plan. The release quoted former minister for disabilities Finian McGrath, an adviser to the Dublin Bay North TD, saying it was “great to see the ‘Heneghan deal’ coming to fruition”.
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Martin said at the time the hospital funding was “not part of any deal” and that there was “no constituency deal” and “no Heneghan deal”.
“You don’t get announcements like that in a capital programme unless there’s a lot of preparatory work in advance in respect of the design,” Martin said at the time.
Heneghan is unfazed by this denial.
“Listen, if you want to say ‘deal’, you want to say ‘shared priorities’, as long as stuff gets done, that’s all I care about,” said Heneghan.
“I know the media loves saying ‘deal’ because it causes a rift between Independents and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.”
He said Opposition figures will say that the delivery of a constituency project was “already happening anyway”, but he see himself as speeding up the process.
“You can call me the catalyst. As a catalyst in science is, I speed up the reaction without getting used up in the process,” he said.
Along with Independent colleagues, he sees himself pushing “macro” issues too, such as increased investment in disability services in the last Budget and progressing “private wires” proposals which he believes could help speed up electricity connections to homes.
At 27, Heneghan is one of the youngest TDs in the Dáil and leads an active life outside politics. On the day he speaks to The Irish Times he is carrying a few cuts to his face from a rugby game he played for Clontarf. He also suffered “a mild concussion”, he said. The injuries aside, he plays to “keep myself fit”, he said.
“If you’re fit, you can represent people better,” he said.
A graduate of Dublin City University, he studied mechanical engineering and has a master’s degree in sustainable energy systems.
Heneghan has also worked as a barman in The Sheds pub in Clontarf. He is fluent in Irish and has worked as a TG4 presenter on a show called Barragram, where he takes on adventures such as paragliding and sea-stack climbing while grabbing “a few snaps” for Instagram, according to the show’s blurb.
Heneghan says McGrath, the former Independent TD who served in the Dáil from 2002 to 2020, is in his “kitchen cabinet” of seven or eight people and someone he leans on heavily for his experience.
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“He has old-school tactics. He’d be on leaflet drops. I’d be more social media,” Heneghan said. “The combination of both is brilliant, and he’s been incredibly helpful to me in times of stress.”
Does Heneghan envisage his own political career lasting decades?
He said he will keeping his name forward if he sees himself as “the best option to represent the area”. “The people in north Dublin will let me know if they don’t think that.”
He counts himself lucky to have a “dedicated and loyal” team around him and said they are enjoying what he calls “this adventure”.
“If I don’t feel like I am the best option for north Dublin, I won’t put my name on a poster, but at the moment I feel like I can fight.”
