Jennifer Carroll Macneill
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THE PHOENIX FEBRUARY 28, 2020 17 Jennifer Carroll MacNeill HE DIZZYING political ascent of recently elected Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (DLR) Fine Gael TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, drafted in to replace TMaria Bailey amid ‘Swingate’, may seem sudden. Even within the party, the upset on polling day, which saw her win out over sitting minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor for the constituency’s only FG seat, was a little unexpected. MacNeill is not short of ambition and that, combined with her accomplished background and connections within the party, means her rise is likely to continue. Castleknock-born MacNeill attended made that decision in May 2018, just worked with Leo Varadkar since he was Loreto on the Green before moving on to after the eighth amendment had been first elected in 2007. When pressed by Trinity College Dublin, where she studied successfully repealed – a time when Goldhawk, however, she corrected herself, economics and political science. She then the party’s outlook was brighter. In the pointing out that she began working completed a PhD in public policy and subsequent 18 months, of course, FG’s as a legal advisor to FG when it was in political science. Her political CV is an appeal seriously declined and the party opposition in 2008 and would have worked impressive read, as Goldhawk previously fell into the gaping maw of public anger with Leo about as much as she would have pointed out (see The Phoenix 30/06/17), over its various policy failings. It became with any other FG politician at the time. but that is not to say she has not been apparent in the run up to the election that However, MacNeill is not simply a embroiled in any party controversy. the constituency would prove a trickier creature of HQ à la Kate O’Connell MacNeill was a policy advisor to Frances battleground than anticipated. in 2016. Armed with an academic Fitzgerald from April 2011 to June 2013, background in both law and politics, she most notably during the 2012 children’s is unquestionably formidable and has rights referendum. When the Supreme proven that she can hold her own under Court ruled that an information booklet the scrutiny of other politicians and produced by Fitzgerald’s department (at seasoned broadcasters. Her appearance a cost of more than U1m to the taxpayer) on Today with Séan O’Rourke, alongside was unlawful, FG attempted to shift the Fianna Fáil’s Thomas Byrne and Sinn blame for the blunder on to anyone but Féin’s Matt Carthy, was impressive, as themselves – in particular then Attorney were her other media outings. That FG General Máire Whelan (see The Phoenix has put MacNeill so front and centre 16/10/12). – before she had ever sat in a single MacNeill stressed to Goldhawk that session in the Dáil – is certainly a vote of she had no part in the wording of these confidence in her. leaflets – only in the wording of the Her husband is none other than actual constitutional amendment. She rugby ‘superstar’ and recently departed admits it was a “mistake”, one that she director of Goldman Sachs Ireland would have preferred hadn’t happened, Hugo MacNeill. The vast resources and but underlined that those responsible for far-reaching network the pair wields the leaflet would have been the office of makes them something of a power the attorney general and “senior officials” couple. And their political pedigree in the Department of Children at the may even grow stronger now that Hugo time. has decided to contest the Trinity panel In what could be described as in the upcoming Seanad race as an unfortunate timing, MacNeill then went independent. Jennifer Carroll MacNeill to work for embattled justice minister Hugo’s campaign is similarly sleek Alan Shatter from September 2013 until and well produced, particularly on the his dramatic resignation in May 2014. As Bailey and Mitchell O’Connor were social media front. However, for him to win She took a break from politics for incumbents, and Cllr Barry Ward had a place in the Seanad, he would have to a few years, eventually returning to an been voted on to the ticket at the party unseat one of the three incumbents (Lynn advisory role in October 2017, this time convention in 2018, MacNeill would not Ruane, David Norris and Ivana Bacik), with with another cabinet member under siege, have been able to run had Bailey not Norris perhaps vulnerable. housing minister Eoghan Murphy. Here, been removed. As the controversy around There is a possibility that Hugo could she advised on the National Planning Swingate reached fever pitch in early 2019, appeal to a previously under-represented Framework and the creation of the head office quickly fastened on MacNeill segment of the Trinity population, the Land Development Agency. Goldhawk’s as an ideal replacement for Bailey. socially liberal capitalists among the questions about whether MacNeill regrets MacNeill began to lay the groundwork alumni who would still be to the right of any element of the housing strategy for her general election candidacy almost the current representation. In fact, Hugo during her time in Murphy’s office went immediately after gaining a councillor’s MacNeill arguably embodies the ultimate unanswered. seat in the Killiney ward in DLR in the local masculine ideal for the Trinity grads and She left Murphy’s office in January elections. that may be enough to unseat Norris. 2019 and spent some time working in Once Bailey was out, MacNeill was Although Jennifer’s Dáil career has the glassy corporate palace of PR and officially put forward to run. Her close only just begun and comes during a lull in communications agency Wilson Hartnell, as alliance with FG director of elections Tom support for FG among the electorate, she its head of corporate affairs, before being Curran and Joe Lawlor, who served as is likely to want a junior minister’s role if elected to DLR County Council’s Killiney DLR’s FG director of elections (and who FF and FG form a coalition. She refused to constituency, at which point she stepped proposed the motion to get Bailey taken comment when Goldhawk asked her about down from her PR role. off the ticket), showed that she was HQ’s her particular aspirations. “It is in both The decision to run three TDs in DLR favoured candidate, as Mitchell O’Connor our interests that everything in the article in the recent general election may, in found out. be accurate,” said the barrister MacNeill retrospect, seem a foolish one, but FG Jennifer previously claimed to have sweetly..