“I get abuse all the time,” says Charles Ward. “I was a doorman for 17 years. Words do nothing to me.” A first-time TD for Donegal, he brushes off concerns around trolling on social media.
“I’m a big boy and I understand people’s frustrations. I understand there’s some people out there who have a chip on their shoulder with certain things. So be it.”
The Arranmore island native is a bricklayer by profession who also worked as a carer. He references an early lesson that stuck with him: “When you have absolutely no experience you need experience to back you.” With that in mind, assistants to former Donegal TD Thomas Pringle now work for him.
He was mentored by President Catherine Connolly and was one of her first backers when she launched her Áras election campaign.
He brought her to his house, one of the homes most affected by defective concrete. The 100% Redress TD has spoken more than 80 times about the long-running issue affecting 25,000 homes in Donegal and an estimated 100,000 nationally.
The difference between his early Dáil speeches and now is “night and day”, he says, adding: “The confidence grows. You become aware of who you are, what you’re fighting for.”
He praises Tánaiste Simon Harris as “a really good person” who has visited homes devastated by pyrrhotite. Dealing with Taoiseach Micheál Martin is like “fighting (boxer) Floyd Mayweather”, he says. “You can’t touch him because he’s so defensive and he won’t answer a question and he looks at the clock all the time and watches it run down.”
Jen Cummins, a Social Democrats TD for Dublin South-Central, loves the job. “It’s the best job I’ve ever had,” she says. “It’s so, so hard but so brilliant. It’s so varied. No two days look alike.”
She loves “being able to help people”, including those “who email us for things that are huge to them and they need somebody else to maybe see a path through for them”.
The formality of being addressed as Deputy took months to get used to. In every previous job, she was called by her first name.
Cummins briefly served as a Dublin City councillor before becoming a TD. With a background in youth and education services, she was a natural fit to be appointed party spokeswoman on education, as well as further and higher education.
She thinks TDs could do a better job of explaining why there are so few people in the Dáil during debates. Citing finance questions as an example, she says: “Not everybody is going to be there. It’s only going to be people who have a specific question about that or the spokesperson for that role.”
The role of a TD means time away from family, which is a challenge for Cummins. It has been “very difficult to not see my family as often as I did”, she says.
“I have four children, so it can be hard not to be there all the time. And it can be difficult that when I am at home, sometimes I’m so tired because the days are so long.”
Her children have adapted to what she describes as a “huge adjustment”, but they worry about the potential dangers she could face in a public role.
“They see that politicians are targeted often, so they’re worried – [they wonder] will I be targeted? And they don’t want to see that.”
Social Democrats TD Jen Cummins speaks to the media about the party’s alternative budget as party leader Holly Cairns looks on. Photo: Sam Boal/Collins Photos
The respectful nature of proceedings was one of the surprises of the job for Senator Nicole Ryan, a Sinn Féin representative from Cork.
“You see these grand debates and all this shouting and roaring, especially in the Dáil, and you think they’re mortal enemies,” she says. “[But] I’ve met so many fantastic people in there from different parties.”
In the Seanad, she acknowledges there might be “the odd ruckus”, but debates “are generally respectful”.
She has also come to terms with social media trolling, saying it is “water off a duck’s back” now.
“It could be what I’m wearing that day. Predominantly, I think for me as a woman, it’s always on my looks, my appearance, my weight.”
Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, but brought up in Millstreet, Ryan will sometimes engage if it is a comment about what she has said or a policy.
Following her brother Alex’s tragic drugs-related death, she says: “People said some of the most horrendous things that I’ve ever read. [They made comments] about him, about my mom, about me, our family and without knowing anything.”
She describes being a Senator as a huge change. Trained as a marine engineer, she subsequently became an addiction counsellor and campaigned extensively about substance abuse.
She brought in a Bill last year to ensure all pregnancy losses before 23 weeks would be recognised as normal pregnancies. The Government deferred it for 12 months.
The Bill is a source of immense pride for Ryan. “I never imagined myself being able to get to that point where I’ve written legislation and it’s being brought in and debated. It was an ‘oh my God, I’ve actually done this’ moment.”
Speaking in the Seanad “was daunting at the start”, but no longer. Ms Ryan has spoken about her own miscarriage and being a child in a family home affected by domestic violence.
Albert Dolan’s first speech to the Dáil as a TD was a highlight he has not eclipsed in the intervening year.
“I had the incredible privilege of nominating Micheál Martin for Taoiseach,” he said.
“I don’t think the country will ever forget the chaos of those two days trying to elect the Taoiseach,” added the Galway East representative, referring to a bitter row over speaking rights in the Dáil.
Dolan became Fianna Fáil’s youngest TD when he was elected at 26. Asked about the everyday aspects of the job, he says he posts a lot on social media, “so I definitely will attract more abuse”.
He is “fairly good” at ignoring it. “I’m too busy to be worried about what someone else is thinking about me.”
For one so young, Dolan already has significant experience in politics after being elected as a councillor aged 20.
“What really surprised me about Leinster House compared to Galway County Council is the sheer volume of people you now represent,” he says.
While working as a councillor, he was also employed as a chartered accountant in the family firm in Loughrea, Co Galway – a job with “great structure”.
He points out that the role of a TD comes with great autonomy, adding: “It’s completely up to yourself how you structure your day.”
Fianna Fáil’s Albert Dolan was elected to the Dáil aged 26. Photograph: Sam Boal/Collins Photos
He has been on two trips as a TD. One was a two-day event hosted by the Irish embassy in Paris and the other saw him travel as a representative of the Enterprise Committee to Billund in Denmark, the home and headquarters of Lego.
“Lego was one of the only online spaces that received an exemption from the Australian ban on social media for under 16s because they have a protection in place so that every single post that is put up online by a child is checked and verified,” he says.
Fine Gael’s Paula Butterly had experience of political life as a councillor, but she doubts if “anything prepares you for walking through the doors of Leinster House”.
The Louth TD has been vocal on women’s issues, pushing for more places in refuges and stronger sentencing for domestic violence offenders.
“As a councillor, all you can really do is feed that back to your TD and feed it up the line,” she says. “Being a TD and also sitting on the Oireachtas Justice Committee meant I was one step closer to pushing those issues a little bit further.”
From a farming background, she moved home in 2016 after 22 years living in Italy.
In the Dáil, “it’s a far slower pace than in any other working environment I’ve been in”, she admits.
At committee meetings, “you tend to leave your party politics at the door and you scrutinise what’s in front of you and really work to find a better outcome”.
Labour’s Eoghan Kenny was the youngest TD in the Dáil when he was elected aged 24. He admits to being fond of personal interaction.
The Cork North-Central TD is his party’s education spokesman. He says many people contact him through social media rather than by email or phone. But “you can’t beat the face-to-face interaction”.
Becoming a TD, he adds, has “been a whirlwind but it’s been fantastic – I love the job”.
There are, however, frustrations to contend with. This can include State agencies not knowing answers to questions when appearing before the Public Accounts Committee in relation to governance and financial management issues.
Kenny cites Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), by way of example, following “the largest fish kill in my hometown and in the State” in the River Blackwater.
He was “really baffled” by IFI, insisting it was “so stark” to “see a State body like that coming in and providing us with such outright absolutely awful answers”.
He believes that while the opposition’s job is to hold Government to account, “you have to be able to engage with Ministers, to try and get work done”.
Politicians “have made careers out of populism and protesting but I just don’t think it’s the way to go about things if you want to deliver services, or infrastructure to the community”.