So Micheál Martin faces into a new week as Fianna Fáil leader – having escaped the heave that never was.
“A challenging week”, is what he called it on Sunday – and said he intended on fulfilling his mandate and seeing out the term. The Taoiseach said he had attended a meeting with 400 party members in Mullingar on Saturday and there was a “very warm, positive” greeting there.
Nonetheless, his Coalition with Fine Gael is two votes shier and one junior minister lighter than it was last Monday, and the global crisis that helped bring things to a head remains unresolved.
The US and Iran remain at odds over a possible peace agreement – and as of this morning, the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. Donald Trump was getting ready to send some of his top men, including vice-president JD Vance, former real estate developer Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, to Islamabad, Pakistan to see if he can get the Iranians to shake on a deal.
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The bad news – it seems the Iranians aren’t prepared to talk yet.
Citing excessive US demands and Washington’s own ongoing naval blockade, the Iranians are reportedly not prepared to enter into a second round of negotiations. They are also threatening to retaliate for the US seizure of an Iranian-flagged ship.
If talks fail to resolve the impasse, Trump says he will revert to that threat to blow the hell out of Iran’s power plants and bridges. The top man on Tehran’s talks team was reported over the weekend as saying there has been progress made on many issues – but a significant gap remains between the two countries.
The two week ceasefire is due to run out on Wednesday.
Even if the several hundred tanker captains who have been twiddling their thumbs were able to get out the gate today – the impact of no fresh oil or gas deliveries to Europe this past while is going to be felt here for months to come.
Electricity and gas price rises are coming next according to the energy minister.
Darragh O’Brien told RTÉ on Sunday that hikes on electricity of up to 9 per cent are possible over the coming summer months – and gas could rise by more. Not quite the 30 per cent recently touted by the enterprise minister, but not great.
O’Brien wouldn’t rule out the possibility energy credits will again be included in the budget – and given the fevered political climate of late – who could blame him?
He has meanwhile told The Irish Times that he is asking the European Commission to drop duties on the import of US aviation fuel – and since February that is where 100 per cent of Ireland’s supplies are being sourced.
The Minister for Finance Simon Harris wants to know what the worst case economic scenario is – and has asked his economic advisers to draw up said appalling vista as he prepares his spring forecast.
Martin told the party faithful at the annual 1916 commemoration at Arbour Hill the recent package of measures on fuel wouldn’t be a permanent answer to Ireland’s challenges. He said the Government was aiming to bring down energy prices over the long term.
Things could be worse for the Taoiseach, it could be argued. Have a look at Keir Starmer’s Monday.
The British prime minister has to face MPs today and answer questions about how he didn’t know Peter Mandelson had failed a security vetting process before landing the US ambassador gig.
Starmer has blamed the Foreign Office for not telling him about Mandelson’s failings – before he appointed the well-known friend of Jeffrey Epstein to the job.
The opposition smells blood – and will push the line that Starmer is either incompetent or has misled the British public.
For now, Starmer’s cabinet appears to be in a holding pattern. Two ministers came to his aid over the weekend after days of silence. But he has taken another serious blow.
Later today, the council of state will convene – at the behest of President Connolly. It will consider the constitutionality of the International Protection Bill.
The bill, which passed through both houses last week, seeks to overhaul the laws governing asylum seekers – in line with the EU’s migration and asylum pact.
Depending on what it says, the President could be sending it to the Supreme Court for further consideration.
Connolly had an interesting weekend. Her attendance at a meeting in Barcelona organised by ‘left-leaning’ heads of government in Spain apparently caused a bit of a tizzy in Irish officialdom, with some civil servants unhappy with the choice of her first official trip abroad.
The ‘Defence of Democracy’ was organised by the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Brazilian president Lula da Silva.
Both men, of course, have made no bones about their opposition to US policy right now. This newspaper reported that some in Dublin were taken aback that she would meet such figures and not the Spanish head of state.
They would rather she visited the UK – for example.
