Meat has our hearts on red alert

She joked it was “interesting” to be back living with her parents but that they are “unbelievably supportive” and she would not be able to do her job in Leinster House without them.

Narrative

Ms Funchion said she would like more women getting involved in politics but the system needs to become more family-friendly.

She said there is a narrative that “this is just the way it is”, driving home at midnight for some TDs and for many others spending most of the week away from their children.

She said she would like to see the return of the voting block on a Thursday afternoon which happened during Covid-19 as it would give more leeway to get home earlier.

And she advocates a monthly schedule that should be stuck to as closely as possible.

She said she has stayed in Dublin previously during the week but it had an impact on her two young sons who are anxious for her to get home so she drives up and back to Kilkenny on Dáil sitting days.

Guilt

She said: “The guilt is constantly there and not just for me but for everyone.

“My youngest son finds the time I’m away very difficult, that’s what the schedule part comes into because he might ring me and say ‘what time will you be home at Mam?’

“I’ll give him a time but then things may change at work and I won’t get home until he’s asleep. “I know people are in much more difficult positions than me but it’s too important not to raise the reality of the housing crisis as well as difficulties women are facing at work.”

RED meat may cause heart disease because of the way bacteria in the stomach respond to it, scientists say.

They think the findings could lead to prevention by interfering with the gut’s microbiome.

This led them to trimethylamine N-oxide (TMNO), produced by gut bacteria to digest red meat that contains high amounts of the chemical L-carnitine.

Dr Meng Wang, of Boston’s Tufts University, said: “Interventions may be helpful to target interactions between red meat and microbiome.”