Gaza continues to roil our politics. But last night a story broke to knock it off the front page, for a day at least, when beef exports to China were suspended after a case of “atypical” BSE was recorded in Ireland. Under an agreement between the two countries, exports – which were only resumed in January of this year – can be suspended immediately if a BSE case is identified. It’s not clear when they might be restored, or if there are any further cases. Government played down the consequences, but the timing, when Tánaiste Micheál Martin is on an official visit to China, is hardly ideal. It will surely come up there today.
There were further heated exchanges in the Dáil yesterday as Opposition TDs urged the Government to expel the Israeli ambassador – something that the Taoiseach and the Government are resolutely opposed to.
“When you expel an ambassador, you disempower yourself,” Varadkar replied to Opposition deputies. “You cut off links, you cannot talk anymore and you have to rebuild those links. I can understand it as an emotional reaction but it is not a common-sense approach in my view, and it is not the way things get done in international affairs.”
Richard Boyd-Barrett wanted to know if the Taoiseach believed that Palestinians had the right to pursue the Israelis responsible for deaths in Gaza “in the same way as the Taoiseach seems to think Israel has the right to pursue the protagonists of October 7th?” He insisted that Palestinians have the right to “self-defence”.
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In Gaza, the bombardment continues
While in Israel, they remember the dead of October 7th
Further fallout, of a sort. Sinn Féin TD Chris Andrews has initiated legal action for defamation against The Irish Times over reports of Mr Andrews’s and his party’s responses to the attack on Israel by Hamas and the Israeli responses in Gaza. Among the matters covered in the article were comments by Mr Andrews on social media about the events in Israel which included his responses to a tweet from the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. The Irish Times intends to strongly defend the action. It is the latest in a series of legal actions taken by Sinn Féin TDs and representatives, and sometimes supporters, against media outlets and political opponents. These include a High Court action by Mary Lou McDonald against RTÉ, and a case taken by her husband against Shane Ross, author of a book about McDonald.
There’s bad news for the Ditch, the investigative news and strongly anti-government website whose stories have claimed the scalps of junior ministers Robert Troy and Damian English in recent years. The post-Paddy Cosgrave Web Summit has pulled its funding.
Meanwhile, we also report today that legislation passed by the Oireachtas last year, which contains extensive powers for the new Electoral Commission to police online advertising and campaigning, has not been commenced yet. The legislation contained sweeping new powers for the Commission to regulate political advertising but also political campaigning online during an election period – something that greatly alarmed internet companies and the social media giants who lobbied the Taoiseach intensively after the legislation was passed. The European Commission also had concerns, in response to which the Government paused the legislation, though it was only required to do so for 90 days last year. It has not yet been un-paused. The EU is also preparing proposals on regulating online advertising, but it is far from clear that these will be completed in time for next year’s local and European elections.
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Playbook
Gaza is likely to surface again in the Dáil when the Taoiseach reports to the House on the recent EU summit in the afternoon. Before that there’s Leaders’ Questions at noon and Taoiseach’s oral questions. Government legislation follows with the final stages of three bills. One is to set up the new agency to tackle domestic and sexual abuse, another to introduce a licensing system for the sale of e-cigarettes, and the third is on regulating organ donation. Weekly votes are at the relatively civilised time of 9.10 pm.
Quiet day in the Seanad, mostly on Government legislation, while in the committee rooms there are public meetings for the committees on enterprise, health, finance, transport, agriculture, and disability matters; private meetings for the committees on social protection, justice and parliamentary privileges and oversight. Details of the hearings are here
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