People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny Gives It To Us Straight in the Hot Press 2017 Annual

The 44-year-old politician also airs his views on contentious issues of our times: euthanasia, prostitution, Brexit, why he believes Ireland will have to eventually leave the EU, the legalisation of soft drugs, the need to introduce the so-called Portuguese Model, and why Donald Trump is a “maniac”.

In a powerful, exclusive interview with Hot Press writer Jason O'Toole, Gino Kenny also opens up about his personal life and beliefs. He frankly discusses his sex life, revealing that he lost his virginity at 19 – but is only now is his first serious relationship.

On still smoking Cannabis as a sitting TD, Gino Kenny says, “I don’t smoke and I’m very health-conscious. I'd smoke a joint the odd time. The last time I smoked a joint was probably about four months ago. If people want to smoke a joint, it’s their business. It’s not a cardinal sin because you had a bleeding joint.”

On trying Ecstasy: Gino Kenny reveals that he tried “recreational drugs” such as ecstasy, which he’s “taken over time” back in the 1990, saying, “I mean, TDs are probably no different from a whole section of society – you know, drugs and alcohol they might take.”

On the hugely positive reaction to getting his Cannabis Bill past the first stage in the Dáil: Gino Kenny admits that he’s been overwhelmed by the public response. He says: “I didn’t realise the impact it was going to have. The emails that I’ve got from people that it will affect, or are using cannabis, is just extraordinary. Amazing. Hopefully, at the end of this process, medical cannabis will be in some form legalised in Ireland. It will give people an option.”

On what motivated him to push the Cannabis Bill: Gino reveals that his decision to campaign to make cannabis legal for medicinal purposes came about because he was approached by a family with a young daughter, who needs the drug to help with her seizures from a disease called Dravet Syndrome. He says: “So, I met that family and they said to me, ‘If you do get elected, can you try to highlight the issue?’ I said, ‘Yes'.”

On Euthanasia: Gino – who worked as a carer for the elderly in several hospitals before becoming a politician – says one of the big issues he now wants to pursue is making euthanasia legally available in Ireland. Gino adds that he believes he would help someone to end their life if they were in unbearable pain. He reveals, “I know it’s very controversial in some ways, but I would be very supportive. It was one subject that when I got elected I wanted to highlight.”

On President-elect Donald Trump, Gino Kenny says, “He really is a maniac. He’s a very dangerous individual. He’s probably one of the most divisive people in the world today. He’s everything that an American President shouldn’t be. I mean, his Republican predecessors – George Bush (Jnr) and Ronald Reagan – they come from the same ilk: they’re psychopaths. Any time that man comes here there should be a huge protest against him.”

On The 8th Amendment: Gino Kenny describes himself as pro-choice and reveals that he knows women who’ve been forced to go abroad for an abortion. He says,“I know some people who have gone over and it was a very difficult decision for them. But they didn’t have any regrets – they knew that it was the right decision.”

He adds that if given the opportunity to talk with the Pope on his planned visit to Ireland that the he’d want to discuss the 8th Amendment and tell him: “The right to choose and the woman’s bodily autonomy is probably the burning issue in Ireland. And obviously women in the priesthood. They have to accept it’s a woman’s right to choose. That would be the issue that I would speak to him about.”

In an impressively honest and forthright interview, the Dublin West TD also talks about prostitution (“I don’t think prosecuting men is the way to go”); God and religion; sex and relationships; his belief that there are other life forms; and on the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the death of his father. And he says that if he had been brought up in Belfast during the troubles he would have joined the IRA and discusses whether he’d support Gerry Adams to become Taoiseach.