INTERVIEW:Coming from a Fianna Fáil political dynasty doesn't stop Barry Andrews from admiring certain politicians from other parties, writes MARY MINIHAN
FIANNA FÁIL Minister for Children Barry Andrews has christened his crowded Dún Laoghaire constituency “the group of death”.
He shares the area, which will lose a seat at the next general election, with party colleague and Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport Mary Hanafin, Green Minister of State Ciarán Cuffe, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore and Fine Gael frontbencher Seán Barrett.
“We have some well-known political figures there . . . it’s going to be so tricky to survive that but you just have to deal with each election as it comes.”
Speaking in his Hawkins House office, Andrews admitted his relationship with the Health Service Executive (HSE) was “fraught” at times.
A particular low point in that relationship appeared to come in May and June, when there were difficulties establishing the number of children who had died in care.
Andrews said social workers he had met at town hall meetings recently said they could tell him the name and address of every child who had died in care, but the formal recording of that information had not been standard practice, as it is now. Some of the information being sought predated the HSE, he said.
“It’s no secret that our relationship can be fraught at times but . . . you can’t achieve anything in life without respecting the other people that are working in the field you’re operating in. Whether that’s the HSE, the media or the Opposition. You must work with these people or you’ll achieve nothing.”
Looking ahead to December’s budget, he said it was inevitable his department would get “a visit from the surgeon’s scalpel” along with others.
On the question of the children’s rights referendum, Andrews insisted it was not being delayed by pressure to stall three outstanding byelections in Donegal South West, Dublin South and Waterford. “No, it’s not in my consideration and it’s not in the Government’s consideration.”
He said proceeding with a referendum using the wording for an amendment to the Constitution proposed in February by the cross-party committee led by Fianna Fáil TD Mary O’Rourke would impact on the budget.
“The resources that will flow from the wording as proposed by the committee would be very, very considerable and they would possibly change the budgetary arithmetic and would change the way that we approach the next budget in a very, very substantial way. But that’s not the real issue. The real issue is some of the wording has consequences that we didn’t really anticipate.”
Potential problems with the wording have been flagged by three different Government departments: Justice, Health and Education.
He said it’s good to have his cousin Chris Andrews, TD for Dublin South East, in the Dáil, “because he is a person you could confide in on issues”. Andrews says another cousin, RTÉ broadcaster Ryan Tubridy, was interested in politics in his younger years. “He was very interested at one point. He was very involved with Ógra.”
But then broadcasting took over. “He’s made skinny people look fashionable, which is great.”
Politicians from the past he has admired include the former Fine Gael tánaiste and minister Peter Barry – “which was a heresy”, he laughed. Former SDLP deputy first minister Seamus Mallon, “and any of the SDLP people who came out of that time who had the same background as people who resorted to bombs and bullets”, also got a mention.
He also paid tribute to his father, former minister for foreign affairs David Andrews, and his late uncle Niall, who was an MEP and TD.
Does the Andrews name still have an impact in his constituency in 2010? “Absolutely it does, there’s no question or doubt about it. My father would be still very well thought of in the area. He served 40 years there and it’s hard to give 40 years in politics and come away with a good name but he did that, which tells you a lot.”