Judicial Appointments Bill yet to reach finish line as Dáil break looms

Who’s coming home? (not football to England).

Good morning. Or dobro jutro, as they say in Croatia. And it is a very good morning in Croatia, having last night defeated England to reach the World Cup final.

A little known fact about Croatian politics is that in the mid-2000s a small group of Fianna Fáil backroom boys, led by the irrepressible PJ Mara, travelled regularly to Croatia to advise the HDZ party (“the local Fianna Fáil”) on election strategy, and with some success too.

Their slogan was “Pokramina Hvratsku” - Forward with Croatia. And indeed it is forward with Croatia. Poor Eng-er-land. Football is not, on this occasion at least, coming home.

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TDs, however, are: today is the final day of scheduled Dáil sittings for the term. According to the week’s agreed order of business, at 10.48pm this evening the Dáil will adjourn until 2pm on Tuesday, September 18th. Oh lordy lord, the summer holidays are here at last.

This means, alas, that you are reading the last Politics Digest until that date. It also means that unless the Seanad gets a jolly old move on, it will not finish its business with the Judicial Appointments Bill, so beloved of Transport Minister Shane Ross, in time to return it to the Dáil before the summer recess.

The Seanad was still stuck in the middle of committee stage yesterday with the Bill. According to several senators on the corridors of Leinster House yesterday, there isn’t a hope in hell of the Bill being finished by this evening.

We have been pointing out hereabouts for months that the Bill - which Mr Ross expected to have on the statute books a year ago - wouldn’t make the summer deadline. This is not something that makes the Independent Alliance Minister happy, to put it mildly.

Some more suspicious minds believe that Fine Gael has been stringing out the legislative process deliberately - there is little enthusiasm in the party for the new law, and active hostility amongst some.

Indeed, Mr Ross may even have entertained these sort of thoughts himself, though he is constantly assured the contrary in the case. Relations between himself and Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan have bordered on the disharmonious at times.

They will not be ameliorated when the Dáil adjourns this evening, with the Bill still floundering in the Seanad, leaving the poor transport Minister like an English defender caught on the wrong side of his man.

Fine Gael-Independent tensions are bubbling a bit, as Philip Ryan reveals in the Indo with a story about a tirade at Cabinet on Tuesday by Mr Ross's colleague Finian McGrath.

Still, there is some good news for Rosser this morning as Sarah Bardon reports his long-cherished dream of reopening Stepaside Garda station may soon be realised.

However, it is not the refurbishment and reopening that Ross might have preferred but rather a “modular” structure, which will be built off-site and transported on-site.

It is, Sarah reports, about the size of four car park spaces. This may be just about large enough to house the criminal population of the Stepaside area alright.

Seanad stands up

Almost as happy as the Croatians were the Palestinians in the visitors’ gallery in the Seanad yesterday when senators voted in favour of a Bill that would ban the sale of goods produced in Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territories.

Fierce lobbying by the Israelis and by the Americans - including of Fianna Fáil, which decided to support the Bill last week - failed to stop the Bill, though the Government (which is strongly opposed) will seek to defeat or block the Bill when it comes to the Dáil.

But it is a significant moment, nonetheless, demonstrating that in the era of new politics, power has shifted away from the Government to the Oireachtas.

Our news report is here, while Marie O'Halloran's report of the Seanad debate is here. Conor Gallagher has an explainer here.

There were many impassioned contributions, not least from an emotional David Norris (as you’d expect), while Fianna Fáil senator Terry Leyden declared the Palestinians have never had a better friend than Fianna Fáil. One only hopes they appreciate it. The Croatians, too, for that matter.

Meanwhile, out on the plinth last night, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was renewing another old political alliance - Fine Gael and Labour. He emerged from the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting to declare his TDs’ support for Michael D Higgins’s bid for a second term, which may include canvassing and postering.

So Michael D’s smile may be beaming down at you from a Fine Gael election poster one of these days. I’d say he’d love that.

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You won't believe this. The UK has a contingency plan for requisitioning mobile generators and putting them on barges in the Irish Sea to keep the lights on in Northern Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

At the Nato summit in Brussels meanwhile, Donald Trump continues to work to destroy the pillars of the western post-war settlement. It's our lead story today, with analysis inside.

Stephen Collins on how Dublin should help Ms May secure a softer Brexit.

Our royal correspondent Miriam Lord has the latest on the visit of Prince Harry and Megan Markle.

"Then, with eight minutes to go, 200 people say "shit" all at once." Johnny Watterson is in a pub in south London.

Playbook

It is of course the (Glorious) Twelfth of July, when Northern unionists celebrate their culture, their history and their loyalty to the crown. Gerry Moriarty reports from an increasingly tense Northern Ireland.

In London it is white paper day.

Also in London, as if they weren’t miserable enough after last night, Donald Trump is visiting.

It will be a long day in Leinster House, and it may finish with some pints.

The Dáil has a slate of Government legislation, as well as Leaders’ Questions, statements on Brexit and Northern Ireland, the weekly divisions, topical issues, motions to be taken without debate and agriculture questions.

The Seanad has a shorter day, but it's sitting next week. Several committee meetings, too - all the details are here.

So that’s it. We’ll keep you up to date throughout the day. Don’t mope if you’re English; don’t gloat if you’re Croatian (or Irish). Enjoy the rest of the summer - we’ll be back in September.

And whatever you do, have an utterly, stonkingly, spankingly, fruity day.