Grealish’s Dáil comments a taste of ugliness to come

Good morning.

In her sketch today, Miriam Lord says "quiet annoyance" lingered in Leinster House yesterday after Noel Grealish's Dáil comments earlier in the week on remittances being sent abroad from non-Irish nationals living here.

Grealish’s statement - singling out Nigerians for special attention with figures that far exceed any State calculations - was also met with a certain dread among TDs. Many had detected an anti-immigrant sentiment rising among some voters, particularly in areas of rural Ireland, and awaited with trepidation to see if any of their colleagues would try reap a political benefit from it.

TDs from all parties, as well as Independents, have repeated privately in recent months that a certain section of the electorate is now more comfortable than ever in openly expressing hostility to immigrants.

Garda and HSE spending criticised by Dáil Public Accounts Committee

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Miriam Lord: Noel Grealish cuts remarkable figures with his loose grasp on facts

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Grealish urged to apologise for ‘exaggerated’ remittance figures

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RTÉ planning 200 job cuts and 15% pay reduction for top presenters

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What Grealish - supported across the airwaves by colleagues from the rural Independent group - showed is TDs and candidates across the country are now actively courting that sentiment for their own political benefit.

An Irish Times editorial rightly calls it a "dangerous intervention". Harry McGee and Jack Horgan-Jones report the Government insists it has no formal deal with Grealish and fact-check his claims.

In an analysis piece, Pat Leahy says Grealish, a Galway West TD, knew exactly what he was doing. Leahy says presidential candidate Peter Casey's attack on Travellers demonstrated there "is a route to political advancement through attacking unpopular minorities using the stained but potent playbook of populism".

In the immediate aftermath of Casey’s strong showing in the presidential contest, TDs reported certain voters felt freer to express views they may have kept to themselves. In his acceptance speech on the night he won the presidency, Michael D Higgins said “words matter”.

Grealish and others have seemingly decided the language Higgins, a former Galway West TD, warned against may indeed matter – but to their electoral benefit.

The roll-out of direct-provision centres across the country has loosed sentiment that some TDs and candidates will seek to exploit in the coming general election. It will be ugly.

Fine Gael to make a decision on Maria Bailey

The Fine Gael executive council meets in the party’s Mount Street headquarters this evening and is expected to consider the Dún Laoghaire candidacy of TD Maria Bailey.

It is expected Bailey will be removed from the ticket and replaced by local councillor Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, who will join sitting TD Mary Mitchell O’Connor, the Minister of State for Higher Education, and councillor Barry Ward on the three-candidate slate.

Paschal Donohoe serves as Fine Gael’s director of organisation and was holed up in party headquarters yesterday holding meetings on the Dún Laoghaire ticket. Donohoe performs a lot of the party’s dirty work so Taoiseach Leo Varadkar can keep his hands clean, and the Dublin Central TD been tidying up general election tickets around the country since the local elections earlier this year.

It is understood he reported back to Varadkar after his Mount Street meetings.

The Bailey saga has been badly handled all round. Maria Bailey has not put a foot right since it emerged she was pursuing a personal injuries claim against a Dublin hotel, and that pattern was maintained to the last.

The past two weeks - since the Dún Laoghaire Fine Gael organisation effectively asked Varadkar to remove her - offered Bailey the final chance to get out on her own terms, but that opportunity was not taken.

Fine Gael and Varadkar failed to take decisive action earlier, and an issue that could have been settled much quicker has been allowed to drag on for six months.

Best reads

In our lead, Jennifer Bray reports governance and spending practices in An Garda Síochána and the HSE, and other public agencies, have been sharply criticised in a report prepared by the Dáil's Public Accounts Committee.

In the op-ed pages, Newton Emerson says the DUP should be forced to admit Jeremy Corbyn's Labour is its only hope.

Bobby McDonagh says British democracy may be the real loser in the Westminster election.

Playbook

Dáil

The Social Protection Bill is at second stage.

Paschal Donohoe will take Department of Public Expenditure and Reform questions at 10.30am.

Leaders’ Questions is at noon, followed by questions on promised legislation and the weekly voting bloc.

There will be statements on RTÉ, children’s services, assessment and therapies, and direct provision.

The Overcrowding Housing Bill, a PMB from Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen, is at second stage.

Seanad

The Upper House is not sitting today.

Committees

The PAC examines the accounts of the Courts Service.

The Dáil Members’ Interests Committee meets in private.

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Defence discusses business and human rights with Trinity College adjunct professor Mary Lawlor, Siobhan Currie of Trócaire and Ed O’Sullivan of Front Line Defenders.

Education and Skills also meets in private.

Housing, Planning and Local Government unveils its report on child and family homelessness.