What are our politicians doing in the halls of Leinster House? TheJournal.ie lets you know with our guide to what’s coming up to the Dáil, Seanad and various Oireachtas committees today.
DÁIL
The all-guns-blazing oratorical drama of Leaders’ Questions kicks off at 10:30am, with 30 minutes set aside afterwards to agree to the day’s agenda.
Just before 11:30am there’ll be a session of statements to discuss the last European Council, which adopted a series of conclusions on strengthening the EU’s campaign for job creation, and on ‘deepening’ the economic and monetary union between Eurozone members.
At 12:35pm (or thereabouts) members kick off their last discussion on legislation to enforce permanent changes to the motor taxation system, in line with the Budget. This is likely to wrap up just in time for lunch at 1:30pm.
Leo Varadkar is in to take Questions to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport after lunch at 2:30pm, and discussion of four topical issues at 3:45pm.
At 4:33pm there’ll be more discussion on motor tax (if needed) before moving on to the final stages of the Animal Health and Welfare Bill, which aims to introduce new standards for animal safety, and on which a vote will be taken at 7:30pm.
The last matter of the day comes up at 7:30pm, when debate resumes on Fianna Fáil’s motion calling for the creation of an independent authority – as part of the new insolvency regime – that can make binding orders on how to deal with mortgages. A vote, at 9pm, will end the day.
The day’s Dáil business can all be viewed here.
SEANAD
The Seanad’s day kicks off at 10:30am with the usual 75-minute plenary debate on the day’s agenda, but then breaks until 2pm when there is two hours of debate on changing the eligibility criteria for medical cards for the over-70s.
At 4pm there’ll be discussion on a motion from Fiach Mac Conghail and the independent Taoiseach’s nominees, which deals with the absence of a central register for non-profits and seeks an update on government plans to enforce financial reporting standards for them.
When that’s done at 6pm, there’ll be discussion on the new Courts Bill 2013 – which liberalises the court reporting regime and removes restrictions on the coverage of some family law cases. Currently there is a near-blanket ban on reporting such cases; this bill proposes to relax them.
The day’s Seanad business can all be viewed here.
COMMITTEES
Five different committees hold public sessions today:
The Transport and Communications deals with one of the many issues that caused friction within the government while Roisin Shortall was at the Department of Health: alcoholic sponsorship of sporting events. (See ‘One to watch’ below; watch here.)
Source: Gavan Reilly, thejournal.ie, 27/03/13
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