On electing a Ceann Comhairle

Lots of names circling this weekend about the new Ceann Comhairle. John Drennan in the Sunday Independent says that Brendan Smith’s name has entered the running. Labour have said that they will not put forward a name from their ranks for the post. Fine Gael are not being so abstemious according to the Sunday Tribune with the names of Dinny McGinley and Michael Noonan being mentioned. However Drennan feels that Fianna Fáil are rather sore about the way John O’Donoghue was taken out so the position will be staying ‘within the tribe’.

Is it wrong to assume that a Ceann Comhairle should be a politician of longstanding with good knowledge of parliamentary procedure and fairly non-controversial in terms of corruption or scandals? Also known as a safe pair of hands.

I ask this because of my reaction to the name of Michael Woods being mentioned by Shane Coleman. Whilst Seamus Kirk’s name from Louth has been widely predicted since last Wednesday I was very surprised to see that some were thinking of Woods.

The former Education Minster (previously holding the health and social welfare portfolios) was responsible in 2002 for signing the deal between the state and religious orders which saw them paying only €128million towards the costs of financial redress to survivors of abuse in residential institutions. Woods defended this deal earlier this year after the publication of the Ryan Report, a defence which was widely criticised. Surely the opposition as well as the survivor organisations outside the Dáil would be sharply critical of his appointment as Ceann Comhairle so soon after the publication of the Ryan Report?

Now one might point to Michael Noonan and his handling of Hepatitis C cases in the same regard or can we?

There are many other names circulating as some see Fianna Fáil trying to mind it’s most vulnerable seat in the next election but there are rather a lot of them about!