Good morning. In a week of continuing presidential speculation and the usual first-day-back shemozzles in the Dáil, it is welcome to report some high-level diplomatic progress.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin and British prime minister Keir Starmer met last week in Chequers, Starmer’s country retreat.
As Pat Leahy reports, there was one particularly important outcome. Now, both governments will disclose new joint proposals to deal with legacy issues in Northern Ireland.
This will be the latest attempt to “overcome one of the politically toxic problems arising from the history of the Troubles”.
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Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris, along with the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Hilary Benn, will unveil the joint proposals in Belfast on Friday, it is understood.
Budget pressures and once-off-measures
The once-off measures have become a staple of the Budget since Covid and the Government’s decision to drop them was always going to attract heat from the Opposition.
Last year, some €2.2 billion on once-off payments were made to households, including payments to help allay energy bills, and third-level fees.
On the first day of the returning Dáil, there was a heated debate (excuse the pun) on the issue.
As Cormac McQuinn reports, the Opposition is trying to put pressure on the Government to include a fresh round of electricity credits for households in next month’s budget.
The demand was made by Sinn Féin and Labour in the Dáil amid rising energy bills and the continuing cost-of-living crisis.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald told Micheál Martin that half a million customers were last week informed by energy companies that “they’ll be hit with large electricity bill hikes from next month”.
“You can’t leave households high and dry, and you must include energy credits in the Budget.”
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe will come under incredible pressure to relent in advance of 7th October. The Government insists that there will be “targeted measures” for the most vulnerable but that will not butter any parsnips with Opposition parties.
How to be political and be above politics at the same time
Forget about the Dáil. Screggan has become the heart of political discourse in Ireland this week.
Michael D Higgins visited the National Ploughing Championship for the last time as president on Tuesday. He is revered there. In between viewing the shires ploughing the furrows, he spoke to the media and commented on the latest UN report, which concluded that Israel had committed acts of genocide in Gaza.
The old saw that the President of Ireland is above politics more or less died a death during Michael D Higgins’ two terms.
On Tuesday, he implied that countries like Israel, and those who supply it with armaments, including the US and the UK, should be thrown out of the UN.
“I believe myself that the kind of actions that are necessary now are the exclusion of those who are practising genocide, and those who are supporting genocide with armaments.
“We must look at their exclusion from the United Nations itself, and we should have no hesitation any longer in relation to ending trade with people who are inflicting this at our fellow human beings,” he said.
Usually, senior Ministers refrain from commenting on the President’s more outspoken remarks, even when they clearly don’t align with that of the Government.
But as Pat Leahy reports, it responded last night in very direct language – more robustly than, arguably, at any time over the past 14 years.
Asked about Mr Higgins’s comments, senior spokespeople on Wednesday said the President was entitled to his views, but they were different from Government policy.
As Pat notes, although many people in Government have resented the President’s interventions over the years, they have refrained from any criticism, at least in public.
Last night was different. The Government Press Secretary and Deputy Press Secretary – who speak for the Taoiseach and Tánaiste respectively – told reporters at the weekly Cabinet briefing that the Government did not favour the approach advocated by Mr Higgins, saying instead Ireland was committed to working through multilateral organisations.
“I don’t believe that is the official Government policy,” the Government press secretary said. “The President has always been very outspoken ... He is entitled to hold those views, but the Government approach is working through the UN and the EU.”
There was a comeback from the Áras. A spokesman said last night: “The President was speaking in response to the clear conclusions of genocide made in the (UN) report chaired by Navi Pillay. He was suggesting that such an action is among the options which could be considered by the international community, in line with previous precedent.”
Best Reads
The Central Bank has once again said the Government’s €9.4 billion budget involves “too much spending”, as Eoin Burke Kennedy reports.
Lorcan Sirr has a stimulating oped which includes a devastating fact – of the 3,350 homes built in Dublin in 2024, only 111 apartments were sold to household buyers and just 44 new scheme houses.
Newton Emerson compares the presidential election to the Eurovision and explores why some media outlets focuses on Heather Humphreys’ connections to the Orange Order.
The case of Harvey Morrison Sherratt, the 7-year-old boy with scoliosis and spina bifida who died this year, was raised in the Dáil yesterday. The Taoiseach acknowledged that delays in his care were “unacceptable”. Cormac McQuinn reports.
Cormac McQuinn’s Dáil sketch points to Social Democrats’ TD Gary Gannon’s showing a moment of generosity when his colleague, the beleaguered Eoin Hayes, was unsure of where to sit.
Playbook
Dáil
08.47: Parliamentary Questions: Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Simon Harris
10.23: Parliamentary Questions: Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment Darragh O’Brien
12.00: Leaders’ Questions
12.34: Other Members’ Questions
13.52: Government Business: Statements on Migration
16:17: Private Members’ Business (Independent Technical Group): Motion re antisocial Behaviour
19.17: Dáil adjourns
