Decisive day as exiting lockdown, questions for McEntee on the agenda

Good morning.

The two stories that have dominated politics for the past week and more – the plan to exit the lockdown and the appointment of Séamus Woulfe – reach decisive points today.

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee will finally take questions from Opposition TDs today on the appointment of Mr Justice Woulfe to the Supreme Court in July.

And the Cabinet subcommittee on Covid-19 will meet this evening for a crucial session that is likely to finalise the plan to reopen social and economic life next week and manage the pandemic for the Christmas period. The plan will be presented to Cabinet for approval tomorrow, and then announced by the leaders of the Government – probably around 6pm.

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So Thursdays are usually quiet. But not today.

Most attention will be focused on the imminent lifting of the lockdown. The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) met yesterday and briefed Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly privately last night on its recommendations, which are likely to be conveyed formally through a letter this morning.

However, it is not expected the public health experts will oppose the reopening, though they will, of course, recommend a cautious approach. Even if they did prefer to extend the restrictions, or at least lift them more slowly, it is unlikely the Government would agree.

Ministers are publicly committed now to the reopening, and none more so than Tánaiste Leo Varadkar who has been getting out ahead of the official announcements. In recent days, the Government has been briefing heavily on the imminent easing of restrictions, making it harder for Nphet to oppose them – in a way, using Nphet’s own tactics against it.

But Varadkar also rolled something of a hand grenade into the final discussions last night when he told the Fine Gael parliamentary party they would have to discuss the situation over travel to Northern Ireland because of the continuing high level of cases there.

Restricting travel across the Border is hardly an option, though, so some Fianna Fáilers were scratching their heads at his intervention last night. He’s sure to be asked about it today in the Dáil when he takes Leaders’ Questions at noon.

Our front page story is here. Jack Power has a guide to the restrictions likely to be lifted next week.

Can McEntee draw line under Woulfe controversy?

McEntee’s trial by ordeal is also due later today. Assuming she can answer with some degree of credibility and coherence, these events normally draw a line under a controversy – as indeed was the case with Varadkar himself a few weeks ago.

If the Opposition smells blood, that’s maybe because the Government retreat on the issue has been as nervy as it was predictable – first refusing to take questions, then trying it on to take them in a limited way through regular ministerial questions and finally relenting yesterday and conceding the special Q&A session.

Our piece on the questions they might ask is here. One in particular is important: when did she know Woulfe was to be appointed, as Varadkar had indicated would happen to Micheál Martin and Eamon Ryan before the Government was formed? Was it before she gave consideration to the applications of the three judges?

Miriam Lord's take is here.

Best reads

In our lead story, Naomi O'Leary reports from Brussels on the scramble for the EU's Brexit compensation fund.

In Germany, a warning about what happens if Covid cases spiral out of control again.

Newton Emerson has an interesting take on Joe Biden's comments about Ireland.

Patsy McGarry on Diarmuid Martin's successor as Archbishop of Dublin.

Food shortages and civil unrest are among the things that could go wrong for Northern Ireland after Brexit, a Stormont committee has heard.

Playbook

All eyes on the Cabinet subcommittee this evening, but there's a full Dáil programme before that. Foreign affairs and finance orals this morning before Leaders' Questions and the Woulfe questions to Helen McEntee. Full schedule on oireachtas.ie.

Seanad sitting and committee details here also.

Elsewhere, University College London is publishing a study on how to run referendums on a united Ireland.

The HSE is doing its weekly Covid briefing at 2pm.

And, finally, if you remember grainy world cup matches and commentary that sounded like it came from the dark side of the moon, if you remember endlessly replaying those matches in the back garden, if you know how the shared memory of sporting experiences can bind half the world together and if you appreciate raw, instinctive, exuberant genius, read Keith Duggan's piece on the late, great Diego Maradona.