Those phone calls the morning Leo stepped down? That’s all six weeks ago now... I am happy where I am
TD Carroll MacNeill plays down her FG leadership bid – but still has her eye on the role of Taoiseach
ON the day of Leo Varadkar’s resignation, first-time TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill made a flurry of early morning calls to party colleagues to sound them out on her leadership ambitions.
It soon became apparent Simon Harris held an unassailable lead, and there would be no contest.
The ambitious Dún Laoghaire TD, 43, was also strongly linked with a senior Cabinet position, but had to settle for a junior ministry, in European Affairs.
However, the Fine Gael deputy is happy with where she landed, becoming only the second female at the top of the Department of Defence.
Asked when she realised her attempt at a leadership bid would not be successful, she said: ‘It was always too early for me at this stage and I’m delighted that Simon is there and in situ.’
She went on: ‘I’m delighted to be in this position now as well. So, you know, that’s all six weeks ago now.’
When asked if being Taoiseach is an ambition of hers, she said: ‘It is and it isn’t’, but then added, ‘Yeah of course, in some way.’
Despite a resurgence of energy in Fine Gael with a new leader – it drew level with Sinn Féin on 23% in an Irish Times poll this week – the party is facing an exodus of 14 ahead of the next election. It will fall to the new generation of TDs, such as Ms Carroll MacNeill, to help rebuild the party under Harris. Having been an adviser to former ministers including Frances Fitzgerald, Alan Shatter and Eoghan Murphy, she had plenty of political experience before her first run for office. She was first elected to the Dún Laoghaire Rathdown council in the 2019 local elections. Then in 2020, she replaced deselected candidate Maria Bailey, who was the subject of controversy over a personal injury claim after she fell off a swing chair in a restaurant.
Ms Carroll MacNeill firmly believes her party has the talent for the upcoming rebuild.
Just four years into being in the public eye as a TD, she said it took her two years to ‘get used to the social media abuse’. The Junior Minister said that she has become somewhat numb to the vitriol online, and that it is not reflected in her real-life interactions with the public.
‘What frustrated me was the sheer lack of responsiveness in particular by Twitter, and Facebook, they were hopeless,’ she said. She also said her assistant manages her social media accounts and handles all the reporting of abusive comments.
Now her focus is firmly on her ministerial brief – and she believes that Ireland has become too complacent on defence. The EU’s defence capability is the ‘dominant conversation’ happening between leaders across the EU. The complexion of the continent has changed utterly since Ms Carroll MacNeill was first elected as a TD in 2020, and she said that Ireland needs to ‘lean further’ into Europe’s review of defence and security capabilities.
One of the stark realities of Ireland’s security vulnerabilities was the cyber attack on the HSE three years ago, and Ms Carroll MacNeill said we remain ‘just as vulnerable to the impact of a major attack’.
When asked if the geopolitical context in recent years has changed enough to force Ireland to reconsider its position on neutrality, Ms Carroll MacNeill said that the country, while not changing its policy on military neutrality, ‘must recognise the changing geopolitical realities that are happening’.
It has been two years since the Commission on the Defence Forces recommended ramping up the investment and recruitment in Ireland’s security forces. However, the reforms of the Defence Forces go beyond spending power.
A tribunal of inquiry will begin its work investigating the process around reporting sexual misconduct in the Defence Forces ‘imminently’, according to the minister.
‘Women in the Defence Forces is one of the things that’s most important to me, particularly being a female minister,’ she said. Ms Carroll MacNeill told the Mail she has already met with the Defence Forces Women’s Network.
‘It’s unusual to find a place that has fewer women than politics,’ she noted.
She said she has a particular interest in the changes made to attract more women and retain the 7% female contingent currently in the Defence Forces.
This includes reimbursement for sports bras, free period products at barracks and ships, and expanded maternity care, including cover for private care, which Ms Carroll MacNeill describes as ‘important things’.
She said that while the tribunal is under way, preventing her from engaging directly with the Women of Honour group, she will be regularly engaging with female representatives from the Defence Forces to address issues they face. ‘That is one of the things I can do differently because I share the same life experience as them,’ she said.
The minister also said the EU should extend the Temporary Protection Directive, which allowed Ukrainians to flee to EU countries in 2022 and gave them status here. She said: ‘This has been extended to March 2025 – then the EU must decide on renewing or scrapping the directive. I hope what we’ll see is Europe continuing to exercise the same sort of supports for Ukrainian refugees.’