Good morning and belated Happy New Year.
Irish politics will fully wake up from its post-turkey and ham and tub of Roses slumber today with a Cabinet meeting and the return of the Dáil after the Christmas break.
Yes, the Taoiseach was in China last week, Ministers were at desks and backbenchers and Opposition politicians were no doubt manning constituency clinics and catching up on correspondence.
But things gear up further from today as a busy year looms.
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In today’s newspaper Political Editor Pat Leahy has a piece on things to watch out for in the new Dáil term.
It includes everything from unrest in Fianna Fáil to how the left-wing alliance will fare and a potentially tricky second Oval Office meeting between Taoiseach Micheál Martin and US president Donald Trump.
He also highlights difficult legislation writing, with the Government having faced criticism last year for a skimpy legislative programme that meant few Bills of substance were brought before the Dáil.
The coming months will see several contentious Bills – including legislation on immigration and the triple lock, and a decision will also have to be made on what to do about the Occupied Territories Bill.
Meanwhile, on the biggest domestic issue – housing (and infrastructure) – Leahy argues that the Government will “will soon run out of places to hide” if various initiatives do not start to yield results.
Marie O’Halloran reports that some 30 Bills form part of the spring legislative programme, with the Government to prioritise rent reform, critical infrastructure changes, immigration, artificial intelligence (AI), public transport and healthcare.
She also reports how the Opposition will approach the new year, writing that hostile exchanges over housing are likely to continue as Opposition parties focus on affordability along with the cost-of-living crisis, Government waste and bureaucracy.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said her party’s focus will continue to be “on making life affordable for ordinary people”, with the housing crisis “front and centre”.
Ms McDonald said there will be a focus on “bringing the Opposition together wherever possible – framing common priorities, challenging Government complacency and insisting on accountability”.
Turmoil in Iran
The death toll in Iran stands at 599 and more than 10,600 people have been arrested since the beginning of unrest across the country in December, according to US-based rights group HRANA. Iran said on Monday it is keeping communications open with the US as president Donald Trump weighed responses to a deadly crackdown on nationwide protests, which pose one of the stiffest challenges to clerical rule since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has expressed support for further sanctions against Iran and cautioned that outside military intervention could be counterproductive.
The EU is considering further economic sanctions.
The Taoiseach described the Iranian regime as “repressive, anti-democratic, authoritarian” and said it has “undermined the rights of women for quite a long time”.
But he said he would prefer additional sanctions, which continue to have an economic impact. “I think the outside world needs to be very careful that we don’t, indirectly, if you like, give succour to the administration,” he said on Monday.
“The future of Iran belongs to the people of Iran, and we need to make sure any support is mobilised behind the people, that the authorities there don’t get excuses to try and rally people behind their cause because of external influences or external attacks”.
Best Reads
In our lead story today Ireland and Britain Editor Mark Hennessy reports that Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has said prosecuting the IRA men who killed his RUC officer father in 1989 would make little difference given the short sentences they would receive under the Belfast Agreement. Speaking to the My Identity podcast in his first interview since retiring last September, Mr Harris said he did not believe the sentences his father’s killers would receive, if prosecuted, would “weigh the scales” in delivering justice for his murder. Northern Ireland’s society “seems to have failed” to deal with the issues of reconciliation and remembrance, Harris also said. Young people have not learned the lessons of the Troubles and have “no experience of what it was like”, he said, noting occasions when large numbers have joined choruses of the Wolfe Tones’s Celtic Symphony with the line “Ooh, Aah, up the ’Ra”.
On the Opinion pages former minister and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan sets out why he believes Ireland should have voted for the Mercosur trade deal between the European Union and a group of South American countries.
Our chief film correspondent Donald Clarke has written about Irish actor Jessie Buckley’s Golden Globes victory for her performance in Hamnet and how it shortens her odds of scooping an Oscar.
Derek Scally continues his reporting from Nuuk with a dispatch headlined: “Make America Go Away”: The red hat that’s all the rage in Greenland.
He also reports that Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, has said his country’s membership of the kingdom of Denmark and Nato remain a “fundamental and firm line”, in advance of talks on Wednesday in Washington.
Playbook
The Cabinet is meeting this morning. Our tee-up story of what is on the agenda including how tech giants could face large penalties for violation of European Union regulations on artificial intelligence and plans aimed at sustainable data centre development is here.
The Dáil returns this afternoon after the Christmas break with proceedings kicking off with Leaders’ Questions at 2pm.
Government Business in the afternoon is the second-stage debate on the legislation to ban disposable vaping products – the Public Health (Single-Use Vapes) Bill 2025 at 3:50pm.
Sinn Féin have a private members motion on the Mercosur trade deal between the European Union and some South American countries. It will be debated from 5:54pm.
Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke is due to take Parliamentary Questions from 7:54pm.
There is an opportunity for TDs to raise Topical Issues from 9:31pm.
Representatives of the Office of the Inspector of Prisons will be quizzed by members of the Committee on Justice from 3pm. As Ronan McGreevy reports, the committee is expected to hear details of chronic overcrowding in the prison system.
The Economic and Social Research Institute, the National Economic and Social Council and Social Justice Ireland will be before the Committee on Budgetary Oversight to discuss demographics and long-term fiscal pressures from 3:15pm.
The Seanad does not meet again until January 20th.
The full Oireachtas schedule can be found here.
