Sinn Féin chooses John Brady to chair Dáil's Public Accounts Committee

John Brady will be chair of the Dáil’s powerful Public Accounts Committee. File photo: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie

John Brady, a Sinn Féin TD for Wicklow, has been appointed as chair of the Dáil’s powerful Public Accounts Committee.

There had been months of delays to appoint committees and their chairs, after the Dáil’s speaking rights row disrupted their formation.

The top jobs at Oireachtas committees include a €10,888 salary top-up and are doled out through the d’Hondt method – which gives the positions based on party size in the Dáil.

Sinn Féin was the final party to announce its picks for committee chairs, with a number of the party’s prominent frontbenchers being selected to take up top jobs.

This includes Galway West TD Mairéad Farrell, who will chair the Finance Committee, and Cavan-Monaghan TD Matt Carthy, who will chair the Justice, Home Affairs and Migration committee.

Ms Farrell briefly was the chair of the PAC in the last Dáil, after former Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley resigned from the party amid internal party inquiries. After his resignation, he was removed from the PAC chair position.

Other party frontbenchers, Rose Conway Walsh and Louise O’Reilly, have been appointed as committee chairs, for the Defence and National Security committee and Petitions committee respectively.

Limerick City TD Maurice Quinlivan will chair the Disability Matters committee, while Waterford TD Conor D McGuinness takes up the top position on the Fisheries and Maritime Affairs committee.

Fianna Fáil committee chairs

On Thursday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed his own party’s committee chairs, with Laois TD Seán Fleming to take over chairing the Infrastructure & National Development Plan Delivery committee.

Cork East TD James O’Connor was appointed as chair of the Enterprise, Tourism and Employment committee, while Dublin South-West TD John Lahart was appointed to chair the Foreign Affairs and Trade committee.

Aindrias Moynihan, from Cork North-West, will chair the Agriculture and Food committee, while Clare TD Cathal Crowe takes on the Education and Youth committee.

Other appointees include Louth TD Erin McGreehan as chair of the Further and Higher Education committee, Dun Laoghaire TD Cormac Devlin as chair of the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement committee and Wicklow-Wexford TD Malcolm Byrne as AI committee chair.

Fine Gael committee chairs

Tánaiste Simon Harris appointed seven Fine Gael TDs to chair committees, all of whom are first-time TDs.

This includes Micheál Carrigy to chair the Housing Committee, Michael Murphy to the Transport committee and John Paul O’Shea to the Social Protection committee.

Barry Ward, TD for Dun Laoghaire, is to chair the European Affairs committee, while Mayo TD Keira Keogh will chair the Children and Equality committee.

Naoise Ó Muiri and Catherine Callaghan are to chair the Climate committee and Members Interests committee respectively.

Other committee chairs

The Social Democrats, meanwhile, confirmed Cork South Central TD Pádraig Rice will chair the Health Committee, while his party colleague Gary Gannon will chair the time-limited Drug Use committee.

For Labour, Tipperary North TD Alan Kelly will chair the Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport Committee. The party will also appoint the chairperson of the Traveller Community committee, but is yet to make a decision on the matter.

Independent TD for Galway West, Catherine Connolly, will chair the Irish Language committee.

The Independent technical group, made up of Independent Ireland, Aontú and independent TD Paul Gogarty, will chair one committee - the budgetary oversight committee. This is likely to go to an Independent Ireland TD.