Good morning,
“Pure nonsense.” It’s always welcome when even the greyest bureaucracies speak plainly. And that is how the European Commission described claims from the US Congress that EU and Irish regulators aggressively “censored” social media coverage of Ireland’s 2024 general election and last year’s presidential election.
Electoral regulator An Coimisiún Toghcháin, and Coimisiún na Meán, which stands accused of working with “biased fact checkers” and NGOs before the elections, flatly no-commented the story.
As Arthur Beesley reports , the house document is likely to be seen as an exchange of small arms fire in the ongoing US-EU border conflict over social media, data protection and content regulation (or as the Trump agenda has it, European attacks on free speech and innovation).
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Is it a big problem for Ireland? Not immediately, unless it’s flung across the Oval Office at Micheál Martin next month, or used as grounds to keep an Irish official out of the US.
Nonetheless, this is the background music as Ireland tries to pick a way through the conflict. French MPs backed a social media ban for the under 15s last week, and raided X offices in Paris on Tuesday , while Spain announced similar plans and said it would make it a criminal offence to manipulate algorithms to amplify illegal content.
Irish efforts look more tame - trialling a new app which could be used to set age limits for social media, while arguing that Europe should move as one when it comes to tackling social media titans - an approach rather undermined by a bunch of major EU countries going it alone. Minister for Media Patrick O’Donovan will have an update on this for cabinet today.
Harry McGee has a tee-up of the rest of the Cabinet agenda, including the planned ban on scrambler bikes in public places.
Some of said titans will visit Leinster House today - expect all these issues and more to play out in the committee rooms around lunchtime. More details in today’s Playbook at the bottom of this newsletter.
President Connolly goes North
President Catherine Connolly undertakes her first trip outside the jurisdiction today, and as promised, it is north of the Border she goes. She will meet First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly at Stormont first, before delivering an address at the Ulster University Campus in north Belfast.
We’re reliably informed that her speeches haven’t been vetted by the Government here (that’s reserved for addresses to the Oireachtas or to the nation, apparently), but her words and actions will be closely watched. The Border and her views on a united Ireland worked their way into a pretty prominent position in her campaign.
She will continue the visit with further events in Derry on Thursday and Friday.
Flooding risk persists
A respite from the deluge for much of the country - but it’s temporary. Meanwhile, the risk of flooding remains, as the Government signs off on increased aid for small firms. Pat Leahy has all the details in our front page lead today.
Best reads
Kathy Sheridan says Sinn Féin is being deliberately obtuse about the EU’s funding plan for Ukraine.
Michael McDowell on the fragility of Ireland’s electricity supply.
Kevin Bakhurst talks to Laura Slattery about top level pay at RTÉ.
Freya McCelements and Seanín Grahama on the removal of a bust of George Mitchell, who was named in the latest batch of Epstein files.
The early edition podcast - wrapping five of the biggest stories in 10 minutes - is here.
Plans for new ballroom at Trump Doonbeg should support “both people and snails”. Quite so:
Playbook
Cabinet starts the political day at 9.30am in Government Buildings, and Dáil action starts from 2pm with Leaders’ Questions. The legislation enabling major reforms to the rental system begins its journey through the Oireachtas just before 4pm.
Sinn Féin is not letting up on Larry Murrin’s continued chairmanship of Bord Bia. It has a private members motion on the matter at 7.22pm.
Topical issues round out the day at 9.22pm.
Here’s the full schedule, if you’re that way inclined.
The Seanad sits from 2pm, with a raft of Government business in the late afternoon and early evening, including statements on inland and marine fisheries.
The full schedule can be found here.
Committees have a full slate today. The HSE is in to the health committee to talk about its National Service Plan for the year ahead at 9am, with Meta, Google and TikTok in to talk about regulation and online safety at the media committee from 12.30pm.
The education committee has a session on the Irish language in third level education at the same time, and just before lunch, the Enterprise Committee is conducting pre-legislative scrutiny of draft laws on the regulation of artificial intelligence.
Here’s the full schedule.
As we mentioned above, President Connolly will visit Northern Ireland.
Also on their travels are Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke, stateside for a Tourism Ireland trade mission, and Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee, who is in Washington for political meetings.
Also in the Capitol (believe it or not) is Father Ted writer turned gender warrior Graham Linehan, speaking to the US House of Representatives judiciary committee about “Europe’s threat to American speech and innovation”.
Can’t imagine they’ll be meeting up for drinks.
