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Good morning.
TDs and senators returned to Leinster House yesterday after the weekend excitement - or trauma - of the local and European elections to trade stories, commiserations and congratulations.
Business in the Oireachtas proceeded at a leisurely pace as the political system caught its breath, and European election counts in Ireland South and Midlands North West are still ongoing. Keep up to speed on both on our Euro elections page here.
All 949 council seats have now been filled, and the postmortems and examinations will begin from today on as party strategists sit down and assess the full results - pinpointing strengths, weaknesses, transfer patterns and pointers for the next elections.
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Most TDs have been focused on their own council areas and have had little chance or inclination to look at the national picture. Sinn Féin, the big losers of the elections, had a heavy contingent in Leinster House yesterday, with Michelle O’Neill and other senior northern figures down for meetings.
O’Neill was mostly in Dublin, according to the party, for preparatory work for the last round of plenary talks this week on restoring the Stormont institutions before Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and British prime minister Theresa May assess the progress of the talks at the end of the week.
But the conversation on what went wrong for Mary Lou McDonald is under way in the party, say insiders, even if it is inchoate and has yet to take focus.
The Fine Gael parliamentary party is also expected to meet this evening, and the election of Maria Walsh in Midlands North West - with the possibility of Deirdre Clune hanging on against all odds in Ireland South - may give TDs and senators a fillip as they gather in Leinster House.
Wiser heads, however, know the party has lessons to learn from the local elections. Fine Gael won an extra 20 seats but fell short of its initial targets and will worry that Fianna Fáil has restablished itself in urban working class areas and in suburban Dublin.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, back in Dublin after an informal meeting of EU heads in Brussels yesterday, will meet under-fire Fine Gael TD Maria Bailey. Bailey will not take up her usual spot as chair of the Housing Committee today, and Miriam Lord says Heather Humphreys became the latest senior Fine Gael figure to steamroller over Bailey yesterday.
The steamroller may get a few more outings at the FG PP later today, with TDs still furious with their Dún Laoghaire colleague.
Best reads
The summer economic statement will see Paschal Donohoe outline exactly how a no-deal Brexit will affect the October budget.
Conor Lally reports on the third gangland murder in eight days in Dublin and says the latest victim was shot dead when he called to the family home of a man killed last week to sympathise with that man's next of kin.
Kathy Sheridan's column on the "circle of life - the political version" is a fine tribute to resilience in life and in politics.
In the Examiner, Gerry Howlin assesses the lessons from the local and European elections. He says the success of the Social Democrats and the Greens is the "first flowering of the elitism of the gaelscoil and Educate Together".
One of the more interesting subplots of the elections across Europe is the poor performance of Germany’s CDU and CSU, now led by Annegret Kramp-Karrenbaeur, and Angela Merkel’s emerging doubts about her successor.
Derek Scally has a piece on AKK here, and Bloomberg's Patrick Donahue reports on tensions between AKK and Merkel.
Playbook
Dáil
Minister for Rural Affairs Michael Ring is on oral questions.
Leaders’ Questions is at noon.
Fianna Fáil has a PMB on housing adaption grants for people with disabilities.
The Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2018 is at report and final stages, as is the National Surplus (Reserve Fund for Exceptional Contingencies) Bill 2018.
There will also be statements on rural community development, on the development of primary care and on the loss of biodiversity and the extinction of species
Seanad
The Upper House will approve a sectoral employment order on electrical contracting, and there is a Fianna Fáil PMB on farm safety.
The Gaming and Lotteries Bill is at committee and remaining stages.
There is also PMB on mental health services.
Committees
The Justice Committee has a session on direct provision with the Irish Refugee Council and the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland.
The Health Committee reviews mental health services.
Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy is before the Housing Committee on short-term letting. The committee will not be chaired by usual chair Maria Bailey.
Rural and Community Development discusses rural rail and other issues with the OPW, Irish Rail and others.
Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has officials from the Department of Culture before it to discuss Project Ireland 2014.
Transport has “engagement with the All Ireland Cruise Ship Action Group”.
The EU Affairs Committee hears from Almut Möller, the head of Berlin office and senior policy fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations, and Minister for European Affairs Helen McEntee on alliance building within the EU.
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