When Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes entered the Dáil chamber on Wednesday he appeared uncertain about where he should sit, initially walking into a row of Government-supporting Independents before hesitating.
During his seven-month exile from the parliamentary party, the Dublin Bay South TD sat apart from the rest of the Soc Dems.
The party imposed that suspension due to misleading information he gave about when he sold shares in Palantir, a company linked to the Israeli military.
This week fresh controversy blew up around Hayes over the emergence of his ill-advised Barack Obama Halloween costume from 16 years ago.
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Hayes has apologised profusely for all of the above and, with his suspension lifted in July, Wednesday was his first full day sitting in the Dáil as a member of the Social Democrats parliamentary party.
Luckily for Hayes, party colleague Gary Gannon spotted him looking lost in the chamber and beckoned him to sit with the rest of the Soc Dem TDs.
Hayes was on his feet later in the day tussling with Micheál Martin whose housing policies, he claimed, have played a “devastating role” in “escalating child poverty”.
In his response it was clear the Taoiseach viewed Hayes as firmly back in the Social Democrats fold.
Martin hit back, telling Hayes his party specialised in “articulating that life is miserable in Ireland”.
The Fianna Fáil leader defended his record on measures that alleviated child poverty, including job creation and the “highest completion rates in schooling in Europe”.
Outside Leinster House, Opposition parties lined up on the plinth to speak to the media.
Independent Ireland leader Michael Collins revealed his party had asked for a minute’s silence to be observed in the Dáil on Wednesday in memory of the assassinated right-wing United States commentator Charlie Kirk.
He said it would include all people who have been killed or hurt by political violence.
The minute’s silence did not materialise later that afternoon, but Mr Collins’s request is expected to be discussed by the Dáil’s business committee on Thursday.
Meanwhile, how did the day look for Galway West’s Catherine Connolly, the only sitting TD contesting the upcoming presidential election?
The left-wing Independent addressed a small crowd protesting about the war in Gaza and she accused Israel of genocide against the Palestinians.
In the Dáil she criticised the contents of the Government’s new National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People as well as litany of similar plans that have come before it over the last 30 years.
She also quizzed the Taoiseach on efforts to stop “the unsustainable fishing of sprat”.
Connolly, it appears, will be well able to stay across a diverse range of topics should she win the keys to Áras an Uachtaráin.
Elsewhere, reporters asked Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín about efforts to corral 20 Oireachtas members to nominate conservative campaigner Maria Steen for entry into the presidential election.
It is a week since Mr Tóibín said 10 TDs and senators had committed to nominating Steen. So far just nine of these have been named and no new support has been revealed.
Tóibín said there were “at least another 10 or 12 TDs and senators” who could make a nomination.
“Sometimes people get stressed about these types of decisions and they overthink the strategy behind them,” he said.
Perhaps showing some frustration with the process of garnering signatures, Tóibín said: “This is an easy decision. It’s actually, ‘Do you want to see a real option on the ballot or not?’ And if you do, just come out and say you do. And if you don’t, come out and say you don’t.”
Tóibín suggested the identity of the 10th Oireachtas member committed to nominating Steen would emerge on Thursday.
With nominations to enter the election closing next Wednesday, time is running out.
