Good morning,
Nothing like a good intra-Coalition spat to shake us out of our post Bank Holiday slumber.
With political attention focused on byelections the far side of the Liffey and the Shannon and a non-sitting day in the Dáil, Tuesday didn’t immediately roar into life.
That didn’t last long. Fianna Fáil Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless featured on the front of two national papers on Tuesday, including the Irish Daily Mail, which splashed concerns over the prospects of future cuts to student fees on its front page.
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During an interview on Claire Byrne’s Newstalk programme, Lawless conceded that a levy on Government departments to pay for overspending in the Department of Education would create “additional challenges”.
Fine Gael higher education spokeswoman Maeve O’Connell kicked into gear and kicked out against Lawless, making her disappointment clear in an intervention on the Leinster House plinth.
Read the summary of the whole palaver here.
Behind the scenes, there was plenty of hand-wringing and finger-pointing, with each of the two parties blaming the other for causing the row. By late afternoon, the warring tribes were dialling down the tension, seemingly putting the row on the lower end of the Richter scale. It probably won’t live long in the memory, but it does show a couple of important things.
Firstly, the persistence of the student fees issue as a weak point for the Coalition. Last year, Lawless waded into pre-budget controversy on the same topic when he suggested temporary reductions may not be put on a permanent footing – which led to much fuming in Fine Gael, and months of targeting by the Opposition, who charged that the Government was deaf to cost-of-living concerns.
In many ways, Lawless was stating the obvious: he can’t write the budget in May, and a planned levy on other departments to pay for an overspend in the Department of Education will likely limit ministerial wiggle room in the budget. But for whatever reason, the fees have become a trigger point.
Secondly, it shows up one of the subtle but important differences between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil when it comes to cost-of-living supports: the former instinctively favours universal measures, which don’t cut out swathes of its base, and suspects that Lawless – alongside his party leader – prefers targeted supports. They may not be wrong in this.
In this Coalition, the frenemies of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are never far from each other’s throats. Must be the whiff of byelections on the air.
Migration and EU popularity
Political editor Pat Leahy is reporting on new survey data from European Movement Ireland. It shows strong support for Irish membership of the EU – at 82 per cent. But the most interesting findings betray a more nuanced, and shifting, sentiment towards the bloc among Irish people. Support for membership may be high, but it’s down; and only a minority believe the EU is moving in the right direction, with concerns among 49 per cent about migration.
Dig into the findings here.
Hutch row
The byelection campaigns are now in full swing, and Gerry Hutch’s comments on migration over the weekend prompted strong criticism from opponents on the left in the Dublin Central contest.
It’s worth dwelling on Sinn Féin’s response – condemning the comments, but not as forcefully. The party is seen as most vulnerable to Hutch’s anti-establishment brand, and has already seen its base splinter on migration.
Best reads
Michal McDowell looks at migration and populism.
Health Correspondent Shauna Bowers asks: How worried should you be about hantavirus?
Naomi O’Leary’s Global Briefing on the invisible workforce that keeps global trade alive.
Kathy Sheridan on neutrality.
Playbook
A clatter of Cabinet ministers will decamp to Arbour Hill Cemetery at 10am, where they will be joined by President Catherine Connolly for the annual 1916 commemoration.
Action in the Dáil starts at 2pm with Leaders’ Questions from Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats and the Independent Technical Group. Other Members’ Questions comes then, followed by the Order of Business and questions on policy or legislation.
Bills being introduced in the afternoon include Labour legislation on banning rental terminations, while in Government time there is a motion on sporting an international claims commission for Ukraine, and statements on a scoping exercise into the abuse perpetrated by Michael Shine.
Sinn Féin has a motion in the evening on flat regeneration in Dublin, before topical issues rounds out the day.
The full schedule can be found here.
Cabinet is meeting at the later time of 4.30pm due to the above-mentioned Arbour Hill gathering – among the items on the agenda is new legislation to prevent someone who killed their child’s other parent from automatically keeping their guardianship rights. Cormac McQuinn has a rundown of the other memos Ministers will be discussing.
The Seanad also sits from 2pm, with Government business in the afternoon featuring statements on international developments.
In the committee rooms, the disability committee meets at 9.30am with the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights
The AI committee is meeting with employers’ body Ibec as it conducts pre-legislative scrutiny on the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Bill – that’s at 12.30pm, while at the same time, the environment committee is hearing from local government officials on flood adaptation.
The finance committee meets at 3.30pm to discuss Simon Harris’s proposed retail investment scheme with academics Barra Roantree and Enda Hargaden.
