Ivana Bacik has become The Labour Party\'s 7th sitting member of the Dail, having been elected to the Dail tonight (09/07/2021) in a By Election in Dublin Bay South. She top the poll of 1st preference votes with 30% support, far exceeding her party\'s performance in recent polls which put them between 3% and 6% support. Government party Fine Gael were in second place with 26% support, while opposition party Sinn Fein had just 16% of the vote. While The Green Party lost its footing in this constituency it still did far better than the Fianna Fail party, which only managed a 5% of the vote. Trinity College Dublin will now have a by-election to vote in a new member of the Seanad.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has chosen Mairead McGuinness to join her cabinet. This follows the nomination by the Irish Government of McGuinness and Andrew McDowell for the role. von der Leyen interviewed both candidates on Monday, 7th September 2020. She said that both showed great commitment to the EU. She has now proposed McGuinness for the post of Commissioner, in charge of financial services, financial stability and the Capital Markets Union. Latvia\'s Valdis Dombrovskis will become the EU\'s Trade Commissioner.

The Irish Coalition Government have agree to nominated Mairead McGuinness and Andrew McDowell as Ireland\'s representative on the EU Commission, this follows the resignation of Phil Hogan from the post following his decision to attend the Oireachtas Golf Society Dinner in August. Mairead McGuinness is currently a Member of the European Parliment for the Ireland Midlands-North-West constituency. Andrew McDowell is the former Vice-president of the European Investment Bank.

Phil Hogan, the EU Commissions Trade Commissioner, has resigned from his position. This follows the scandal revolving around an Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) Golf Society Dinner in Galway last week. The dinner was met with frustration after a number of high profiled politicians, TV presenters and judges attended the event which did not meet with COVID-19 guidelines. Mr. Hogan had insisted he did nothing wrong, however on Wednesday night (26 August 2020) he announced he was to step down.

The leaders of Ireland\'s coalition government have welcomed Commissioner Hogan\'s apology following the fallout from the Oireachtas Golf Society Dinner, however the three leaders continue to have concerns about the Commissioners movements around Ireland during the Covid-19 restrictions. They concluded by saying that ultimately the Commissioner is accountable to the EU commission and not the Irish Government or the Oireachtas.

Fall out from the Oirechtas Golf Society Dinner in Galway continued today (21st of August, 2020). The Leas-Chathaoirleach (deputy-Chair) of Seanad Éireann (The Irish Senate), Jerry Buttimer, resigned from his position today, following the announcement that the Minister for Agriculture was stepping down from his position, both are members of the coalition government, a government under pressure to preform. The Irish EU Commissioner, Phil Hogan, also attended the event. While the Leader of the Opposition, Mary Lou McDonald called for the Dail to reconvened.