This week saw our TDs and Senators return after their near two-week Easter break. We couldn’t confirm suggestions of falling attendance levels at golf courses around the country as Senators had to be back in the upper house. TDs eased themselves back into the week by not returning to the chamber until Wednesday afternoon and has finished up again before 6pm on Thursday.

There wasn’t much to report from the chamber itself – leaders questions was the usual over and back between the Opposition and Government and most of the action this week centred on the same sex marriage referendum campaign outside the Dáil.

Monday saw one of the most significant interventions in the campaign. Former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese called for a YES vote. She declared it as a human rights issue, and that it was actually about children, “Ireland’s gay children”.

In an exclusive interview with Newstalk’s George Hook in the United States, Mary McAleese talked about giving gay people the joy of being full citizens in their own country.

But there was little love for the former President’s intervention from some of those on the NO side. Breda O’Brien, patron of the Iona Institute. Having campaigned against civil partnerships for same sex couples in 2010, when she joined Chris Donoghue on Newstalk Breakfast on Tuesday, Breda declared that these civil partnerships allowed citizens to be equal.

The ‘love’ of Twitter

The same sex marriage campaign took another twist on Thursday when the social media company Twitter and other technology firms came together to call for a YES vote. They say it would be good for business. At a meeting today involving the Taoiseach Enda Kenny and technology leaders - including Twitter Ireland managing director Stephen McIntyre – he said a Yes vote would show that Ireland is inclusive and a good place for international investment.

The Taoiseach used the moment to let us all know that he wanted a YES vote so there would be more days out.

But of course not everyone was happy with this intervention. David Quinn of the Iona Institute voiced his objections – on Twitter

Now that twitter feels free to interfere in Irish politics by calling for Yes vote, maybe next time they should ask us to support Renua.

— David Quinn (@DavQuinn) April 16, 2015

But David’s outrage didn’t seem to last too long – he didn’t close down his twitter account in protest, no he’s still loving the site and tweeting away.

Enda and Joan advised to “go all the way”...

For the week that was in it, with so much love in the air, there was some advice to the Taoiseach and Tánaiste to go all the way – to the end of the Government’s term that is.

There’s a lot of thought going into when the next election might be with many believing it could happen in the autumn after the budget. One TD not worried about when it will be is former Minister Ruairi Quinn who will bow out at the next election. But he believes that the options for coalition mean the current government – unpopular as it is – has every chance of being re-elected. But whether his advice will be taken on board remains to be seen.

Ruairi Quinn joined Pat Kenny this week on Newstalk for an extensive interview.

For the love of a policy

There’s been a lot of criticism of Fianna Fáil over an apparent lack of policies. So imagine the excitement this week when news got out that the frontbench would be discussing a new health policy document, written by Billy Kelleher. On Tuesday afternoon – after the frontbench had discussed the plan – we were told it wouldn’t be published for another week. But of course by that evening it had been ‘selectively leaked’ because journalists are impatient and weren’t going to wait for a week to see the plan.

The draft document outlines why Universal Health Insurance is wrong – so basically it says we’ll go back to the two-tier system that has been in place when Fianna Fáil were last in power, though maybe with a few tweaks. There’s a sugar tax, a ban of advertising fatty and salty foods before 9pm, and a reversal of the Department of Health being accountable for the service, maintaining the HSE (which to be fair the coalition haven’t done too great a job of abolishing as planned) and restoring full control of its budget.

In other words putting the health service back to where it was in 2011. Fianna Fáil’s not making too many inroads in the polls and the party’s unlikely to if they don’t run from their past, rather than embracing it.