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'I’m not going to lie to people, I’d much rather be in the Dáil'

Last month Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said he wasn’t going to “kick around the Seanad’ if he lost his Dáil seat. Now he’s changed his mind.

aor

OUTGOING LABOUR MINISTER Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has defended his u-turn on running for the Seanad, insisting he is entitled to change his mind.

Prior to losing his seat in Dublin Bay North last month, Ó Ríordáin told Newstalk that he was ”not going to kick around the Seanad for five years” and would leave politics if he lost his seat.

This clip has been circulating since it was announced that he would be contesting the forthcoming Seanad election:
https://soundcloud.com/newschambers/o-riordain-im-not-going-to-kick-around-the-seanad-for-five-years

Ó Ríordáin is now running for a seat on the Seanad’s industrial and commercial panel having beaten outgoing senators Lorraine Higgins and John Kelly in an internal party battle to be the Labour nominee.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie this week, Ó Ríordáin said he was prepared to walk away from politics, but changed his mind.

“I thought about it and I spoke to my family about it and the question was: Do you walk away or do you try and stay in the Oireachtas? And that’s your choice,” he said.

He explained why he changed his mind:

Michael Sheils McNamee

I think you’re entitled to change your mind. The problem I think sometimes with politics and also, if you don’t mind me saying so, media analysis of politics [is] if a politician changes his or her mind, it’s viewed as being weak, flip-flopper, hypocrite or whatever.

Ó Ríordáin said he didn’t like the idea of “kicking around the Seanad for five years” but said without being there he would be unable to push various agendas, citing reforms to Direct Provision, the Eighth Amendment and recognising Travellers’ ethnicity.

These are all issues he has worked on as minister of state with responsibility for new communities, culture, equality and drugs strategy. Despite no longer being a TD, he retains this role until a new government is formed

I could just leave that to other people or I can say that maybe I have a role to play here and also, if I’m perfectly honest about it, the fact that the Labour party are in such a difficult space, I feel if I was to walk away now, I would be maybe not being as beneficial to the party as I might be. I think, not being arrogant about it, that I do have a role, to play in rebuilding the party.

In January 2013, Ó Ríordáin said he believed it was not possible to reform “a discredited Seanad chamber” – some nine months before the failed referendum to abolish the house.

Labour / YouTube

But he said he’d also changed his mind on this following two years of speaking on behalf of the government in the upper house.

“When you’re in there as a minister of state, you do come across some pretty well-informed debate and it’s different than the Dáil. The Dáil is quite adversarial, it’s quite fake,” Ó Ríordáin said.

“[The Seanad] doesn’t necessarily have as much of a government versus opposition feel about it. Certainly not the bit I was involved in.”

But he admitted that his ultimate ambition is to return to the Dáil, adding:

Look, I’m not going to lie to people, I’d much rather be in the Dáil. But if I want to stay in politics I want to have a political platform to say what I want to say and the Seanad offers me that platform.

“It’s an opportunity to pursue the agenda. I just don’t feel I’m finished yet, I don’t feel the things I believe in have run their course.”

If he fails to win election to the upper house next month, Ó Ríordáin refused to rule out running for the Dáil again, but added:

If I don’t get elected to the Seanad, you’ve just taken two rejections. If you get two rejections at a teenage disco, you kind of go home.

‘So obsessed with publicity’: Outgoing Labour minister’s parting shot at Leo

Read: Three Labour ministers who lost their Dáil seats are going for the Seanad

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    Mute Shane Corry
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    Apr 10th 2019, 12:32 PM

    Sounds like a complete non-story. So some employee of a contractor made a mistake, it was quickly resolved within an hour and they are getting compensation?

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    Mute happinessnow
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    Apr 10th 2019, 12:52 PM

    @Sean Murphy: Is that true? Actually I don’t even know why I ask you that, Lawless Ireland, build more prison spaces ASAP.

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    Mute Candace
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    Apr 10th 2019, 12:57 PM

    @Sean Murphy:

    What part of the country?

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    Mute Sean Murphy
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    Apr 10th 2019, 12:59 PM
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    Mute Ted Murray
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    Apr 10th 2019, 1:05 PM

    @Sean Murphy: __ He should have one last taxi ride, to Dublin Airport.

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    Mute Sean Murphy
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    Apr 10th 2019, 1:06 PM

    @Candace: Dublin, of course! Our most ‘diverse’ city so therefore our ‘strongest’, or so the leftists say!

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    Mute Dave O'Keeffe
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    Apr 10th 2019, 1:14 PM

    @Sean Murphy: that’s shocking. Our Judiciary is truly fu(ked.

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    Mute gerard carey
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    Apr 10th 2019, 1:17 PM

    @Sean Murphy: You won’t hear about that on the journal. Independent.ie covered it. It’s like a bad April fools joke.

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    Mute Shane Corry
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    Apr 10th 2019, 1:24 PM

    @Sean Murphy: Wow that judgement is horrendous though I can’t say it isn’t typical of the Irish judicial system – the only country that allows those with 100s of previous convictions to repeately get away with crimes with no punishment.

    He has two teenage daughters too according to that article while the women he assaulted were in their teens or early 20s! Should have had his taxi license revoked & imprisoned for at least 6 months.

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    Mute Dermot Foley
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    Apr 10th 2019, 2:30 PM

    @Sean Murphy: what exactly is your point. Whataboutery of the highest order. Was it just to mention the fact he’s from Pakistan?

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    Mute Has-an
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    Apr 10th 2019, 2:30 PM

    @Sean Murphy: there is a big problem in Irish law Enforce.
    How he could let get out of it and permit to continue driving taxi?

    23
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    Mute Sean Murphy
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    Apr 10th 2019, 4:48 PM

    @Dermot Foley: Well my point was obvious to anyone with a room temperature IQ. Someone being mildly inconvenienced at an airport is much less newsworthy than a foreign taxi driver sexually assaulting Irish women and being allowed to continue drive taxis as long as the women sit in the back seat. They have since deleted my comment and finally reported on it.

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    Mute Dave O'Keeffe
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    Apr 10th 2019, 5:36 PM

    @Sean Murphy: question, wasn’t one of the women German? And also what the hell does it matter where the women are from?

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    Mute Mark Plunkett
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    Apr 10th 2019, 8:50 PM

    @Sean Murphy: just read that story what a joke,just make sure the girls sit in the back of the cab when you go out hunting again for the 4th time,some joke of a country we have become??

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    Mute Rei
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    Apr 10th 2019, 10:32 PM

    @Sean Murphy: what does it matter where he’s from? It doesnt.
    It’s just an excuse for xenophobia. Plenty of Irish lads just as despicable.

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    Mute Eoin O'C
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    Apr 10th 2019, 12:55 PM

    “If you love me, make some noise”

    Jesus, that’s some ego he’s got. Nothing like a bit of twitter-fuelled self-entitlement to get your way

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    Mute Jindrich Marz
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    Apr 10th 2019, 3:18 PM

    @Eoin O’C: Not to get his way but to get the legal way.

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    Mute Conor Kennelly
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    Apr 10th 2019, 3:36 PM

    @Eoin O’C: what’s your issue, he was only asking for what he was perfectly entitled to, the freedom to travel to this country for which he had the correct travel documents.

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    Mute Rei
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    Apr 10th 2019, 10:34 PM

    @Eoin O’C: I don’t see the problem. Companies react when they’re blasted on social media. Smart move really.

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    Mute Coco86
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    Apr 10th 2019, 12:30 PM

    Human error…… Happens to us all

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    Mute Coco86
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    Apr 10th 2019, 12:31 PM

    @Coco86: Plus Ryanair have resolved the situation. The only outrage here is the lengths people have to go through for decent customer service from Ryanair!

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    Mute Shane Corry
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    Apr 10th 2019, 12:34 PM

    @Coco86: He posted it on Twitter, they replied in less than an hour, before the tweet had gotten popular and managed to resolve it while he kept tweeting swear words at them repeatedly https://twitter.com/iyad_elbaghdadi/status/1115906034814599168. I don’t get the issue here.

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    Mute Neil Ryan
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    Apr 10th 2019, 12:38 PM

    @Shane Corry: He lost any sympathy as soon as he resorted to using foul language.

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    Mute Coco86
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    Apr 10th 2019, 12:43 PM

    @Shane Corry: Fair enough, hadn’t seen tweets from him to Ryanair

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    Mute Dave O'Keeffe
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    Apr 10th 2019, 1:21 PM

    @Shane Corry: where in that thread is it resolved? The guy once spent 26 days in an airport due to a similar issue. It’s understandable that he would be agitated.

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    Mute Dave O'Keeffe
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    Apr 10th 2019, 5:37 PM

    @Neil Ryan: yeah, fu(k him, he said a naughty word!

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    Mute Neil Ryan
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    Apr 10th 2019, 5:41 PM

    @Dave O’Keeffe: Don’t get me wrong – I swear like a sailor! But as soon as you use it on a public forum, you lose the higher ground.

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    Mute Dave O'Keeffe
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    Apr 11th 2019, 12:00 AM

    @Neil Ryan: no you don’t, they’re words. Obviously staff on the ground were completely unhelpful to say he needed to go online while already in the airport.

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    Mute GRANjzT
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    Apr 10th 2019, 12:45 PM

    This man threw his toys out of the pram like some moody teenage boy and started f-ing and blinding at some poor Ryanair staff member online who was trying to resolve the issue. In spite of this, they still resolved his problem and put him on the next flight with compensation. He didn’t deserve to get on their flights at all after that public foul mouthed tirade.

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    Mute Finn H. Schoyen
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    Apr 10th 2019, 12:49 PM

    @GRANjzT: wouldn’t you be angry if something like this happened to you?

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    Mute Coco86
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    Apr 10th 2019, 12:54 PM

    @Finn H. Schoyen: Yes of course but do you think he handled the situation correctly?

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    Mute John Horan
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    Apr 10th 2019, 12:59 PM

    @GRANjzT: maybe he is like the guy from the AIB story yesterday…the compensation only compounded the problem apparently

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    Mute Alan Scott
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    Aug 12th 2023, 7:54 AM

    @GRANjzT: I have seen a lot of foul mouthed words on Journal.ie over the years Journal mods done absolutely nothing about it.

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    Mute conor Murphy
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    Apr 10th 2019, 1:13 PM

    The one thing I would love to know and it has little to do with this story and that is, what percentage of crimes are committed in this country by foreign nationalist ??

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    Mute Karen Wellington
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    Apr 10th 2019, 2:17 PM

    @conor Murphy: it has nothing to do with this article. Maybe submit an FOI to Dept Justice

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    Mute Rei
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    Apr 10th 2019, 10:36 PM

    @conor Murphy: why do you care? Seems plenty of Irish people commit lots of crimes abroad. Do you want those statistics too? Somehow I doubt it. You’re just looking for an excuse.

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    Mute Candace
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    Apr 10th 2019, 12:54 PM

    Arab spring was a failure in the end, all it sprung was more misery.

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    Mute Nicky O'Donnell
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    Apr 10th 2019, 12:35 PM

    No RyanAir. It was not your ‘handling agent’. They were your employees that you didn’t train properly, as per usual.

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    Mute Noel Brennan
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    Apr 10th 2019, 12:33 PM

    I hope he won’t be waiting ten months for compensation from Ryanair, and won’t have to jump through hoops, like I was.

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    Mute Toomasu Sumitsu
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    Apr 10th 2019, 1:17 PM

    People that work in airports aren’t trained properly. Lufthansa staff stopped my girlfriend from boarding a flight to Dublin because they thought it was in the UK and she didn’t have a UK visa. Ryanair regularly stop Taiwanese travelling too because they think they have to follow the same procedures as the Chinese. Generally explaining geography and visa rules overcomes the issue.

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    Mute Mike Conway
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    Apr 10th 2019, 3:36 PM

    He should have been kept out.

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    Mute Patricia Kiersey
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    Apr 10th 2019, 6:42 PM

    Iyad El Baghdadi is a well respected human rights campaigner. It is embarrassing that he had such an experience on his way to this country. How demeaning and frustrating it must have been, especially as all his paperwork as absolutely in order. No doubt he missed attending the meeting he was coming to participate in, since it looks as if there were no other flights until this evening from Berlin to Dublin. I welcome him here and I hope the rest of his stay will be fulfilling.

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    Mute PV Nevin
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    Apr 10th 2019, 1:14 PM
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    Mute Niall Sheridan
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    Apr 10th 2019, 12:40 PM

    Clowns

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    Mute Kieran Cronin
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    Apr 10th 2019, 8:29 PM

    muslim brotherhood travelling to ireland for a meeting ?????

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    Mute David Jordan
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    Apr 10th 2019, 8:41 PM

    @Kieran Cronin: Eh no, he’s a vocal critic of Hamas, who were established in 1987 by a group of Muslim Brotherhood activists.

    “So here’s me saying it again: Hamas is a destructive organization and its effect on the Palestinian struggle has been nothing short of a catastrophe.” – İyad el-Baghdadi

    https://twitter.com/iyad_elbaghdadi/status/1109886173537886208

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