Singer, addiction therapist, Senator, Frances Black has many roles and many responsibilities. She managed to take time out of her jam-packed schedule to chat to Kathryn Thomas on The Ray D'Arcy Show about her first year in Leinster House, and what a year it has been.
"For the first seven months I think I was still in shock. It was almost like, you know, I can't believe I got elected to the Seanad, it was amazing… It's been a whirlwind of a year… This has probably been the most interesting time for any person to be in politics… It's like as if there's a really strange energy in the world."
Frances is coping with this new, unfamiliar energy by throwing herself into the issues that she is passionate about, but keeping the focus has not been without its challenges.
"Even in my manifesto I spoke about the issues around mental health, homelessness, addiction – they were the promises that I made when I was being elected, that they were the issues I was going to work on, but you do get caught up in all of the other issues that come up … any of the issues that I felt there might be an injustice with, I'd be in there. "
As a therapist in the Rutland Centre and founder of The Rise Foundation which supports the families of those battling with addiction, as well as somebody who has been very open about her own struggles with alcohol, this issue is particularly close to Frances' heart. She devotes much of her time campaigning for awareness of alcohol abuse and better support for those affected. She highlights the fact that over 1500 hospital beds daily are taken up due to alcohol-related issues, and that alcohol plays a role in over 50% of all suicides in this country. She is working hard to have new legislation brought in which will necessitate product separation between alcohol and other goods in local shops.
"I don't think it's ok for a three year old child to be going up to the local shop with Mam and just seeing a wall full of alcohol. If you start to notice the amount of alcohol that's in our faces every single day, when you really start to become aware of it, it's quite shocking… It doesn't eliminate your choice. All we're asking is that when you walk into your local shop, you just have doors on the shelves. I don't think it's an issue, it's the same as cigarettes."
Frances is also a dedicated member of the Seanad Brexit Committee and the Good Friday Implementation Committee and as such is very aware of the implications of the decisions which must be made in the coming months and years.
"Brexit is huge, it's absolutely huge… we've had so many people come in to present to us about the issues that they're really terrified (about)… It's just off the Richter scales, the concerns… The feedback I get, which worries me, is that I'm not sure they really know what they're doing over in Westminster… They're not sure exactly of the implications of what they've done."
Click here to listen to the full interview.