Good morning,
World leaders are gathering at the G20 summit in Bali after the Polish foreign ministry claimed last night that a “Russian-made missile” was responsible for killing two people in the village of Przewodów on Tuesday.
The Polish Government held a security crisis meeting which finished up after midnight, and the foreign ministry is expected to summon the Russian ambassador for answers this morning.
The explosion came after a day in which Russia fired around 90 missiles into Ukraine in an evident bid to damage the country’s energy system.
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Foreign affairs spokesperson Lukasz Jasina said: “On November 15th, 2022, massive shelling of the entire territory of Ukraine and its critical infrastructure by the armed forces of the Russian Federation was observed for many hours.
“At 15.40 in the village of Przewodów … a Russian-made missile fell, killing two citizens of the republic of Poland.”
However, in the small hours of the morning US president Joe Biden appeared to pour cold water on the idea of the missiles being deliberately sent by Russia.
He said: “There is preliminary information that contests that.
“I don’t want to say that until we completely investigate it, but it is unlikely in the lines of the trajectory that it was fired from Russia, but we’ll see.”
On the other hand, Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, said it was highly likely that he would call for invoking Article four of the Nato charter.
Article four calls for consultations if a member country feels its territorial integrity is threatened.
Duda has now spoken with EU leaders including British prime minister Rishi Sunak and with US president Joe Biden who offered “full US support.”
G7 leaders are also holding an emergency summit meeting today in Bali in Indonesia, at the sidelines of the G20 summit.
The scale or seriousness of the response this evokes is not yet clear as investigators seek to determine if the strike was deliberate or not, but Biden’s comments would appear to dampen any major escalation.
Follow further developments on irishtimes.com throughout the day and no doubt this issue will be raised in the Dáil today.
Tensions over State’s mandatory reporting laws revealed
As the nation came to terms with the death of women’s health advocate Vicky Phelan, Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the Dáil that key changes demanded by the campaigner would be a reality by the end of the year.
He said legislation to allow full disclosure in medical cases will be in place within weeks, if all parties in the Dáil agree.
His commitment was welcomed by the Opposition, but as we report this morning, there have been tensions behind the scenes in recent months between the HSE and Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly over the plans.
The main aim of the legislation is to provide for mandatory open disclosure of specified serious patient safety incidents.
Opposition politicians have argued that the Bill in its current format actually would not cover the what has been sought by campaigners like Ms Phelan. Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane sought to amend the legislation to include a provision that “delayed diagnosis” would be one of the notifiable incidents but this was not agreed to.
Instead, Mr Donnelly said he would bring an amendment to the Dáil to ensure that patients whose files showed any discordance following a “look-back” would be given this information by law.
He said that the “non-disclosure that happened in CervicalCheck, even though it does not neatly fit here, should still be legislated for.”
“This is our opportunity to make sure we are very clear under law that the element of non-disclosure that happened in CervicalCheck will now be covered under legislation.”
The HSE have expressed their concern that specifically adding interval cancers to the legislation, and potentially bringing it under the umbrella of notifiable patient safety incidents, would have “negative consequences” for screening services.
During a meeting of the organisation’s safety and quality committee in mid-April, officials were told “that inclusion of disclosure of interval cancer to the Bill could imply that interval cancers are patient safety incidents.”
This, they said, was contrary to expert reports that “outlined interval cancers as recognised, unavoidable, and expected occurrences in population screening programmes.”
It is important to remember in a note given to then health minister Simon Harris at the time of Ms Phelan’s legal action, Mr Harris was told her case was not a patient safety incident.
“The National Screening Service and Jerome Coffey, Head of the National Cancer Control Programme, have advised the Department in writing that they do not consider this to be a patient safety incident but rather a reflection of the known limitations of the current screening test,” the note said.
One Government source sought to downplay the tensions between the HSE and Department last night, saying the issue will be resolved and that the amendments (there are other extra sections on other topics being added) will be ready in as little as two weeks. The pressure will remain on the Government in the coming days and weeks to bring forward workable legislation that is acceptable to all sides but particularly those most affected by the CervicalCheck debacle who are watching the unfolding debate closely.
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Playbook
Dáil Éireann
Leaders’ Questions start at noon. Topical Issues will kick proceedings off just after 9am. The Rural Independent Group has motion on the cost of fuel.
At 12.34pm there will questions on policy and legislation before a motion on supplementary estimates – or extra money needed – for departments and public services.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin will take to his feet for Taoiseach’s Questions at 1.05pm before statements following the European Council Meeting of 20th and 21st October 2022. A number of Government Bills are listed throughout the day before a deferred vote on the new hate crime legislation, the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022. The Rural Independent Group was last night accusing the Government of trying to ram this legislation through, so there could be trouble here.
The Dáil adjourns at 8.30pm.
Here is the full schedule.
Seanad
Commencement matters will be taken at 10.30am followed by the order of business. At 12.45pm there will Government business which will involve statements on the private nursing home sector. At 6pm there will be a motion in relation to vaping brought by Fine Gael Senators. The Seanad then adjourns at 8pm.
A more detailed schedule can be found here.
Committees
At 9.30am the Joint Committee on Enterprise and Trade and Employment will hold a discussion on the challenges facing small businesses. The committee will hear from representatives from the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association and the Family Business Network amongst others.
At the same time the Joint Committee on Health will discuss the HSE’s Winter Plan for 2022 and 2023.
At 2.30pm, the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications will hear an update on the aviation sector.
At 5.30pm, the Committee on Budgetary Oversight will hold an examination of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare Report.
At the same time the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine will discuss the eradication of Bovine TB with representatives from the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) and the Irish Cattle & Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA), among others.
Here is the full schedule of public and private meetings.
