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Sinn Féin says the Northern Ireland peace process has fallen flat since the British government failed to offer a cash injection promised in the St Andrew's Agreement. Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland
Leinster House

Oireachtas agenda: Coillte sale, taxi laws and 15 years of Good Friday

A Sinn Féin motion debated tonight will call for the ‘re-energisation’ of the Northern Ireland peace process.

WHAT ARE OUR politicians doing in the halls of Leinster House?

TheJournal.ie lets you know with our guide to what’s coming up to the Dáil and various Oireachtas committees today.

DÁIL

Tuesday sittings mean the morning is left idle while members commute back to Dublin – so there’ll be no business until 2pm when James Reilly takes Questions to the Minister for Health. Enda Kenny takes Leaders’ Questions at 3:15pm and Questions to the Taoiseach for an hour at 3:36pm.

Once TDs have agreed to the rest of the day’s agenda, and debated four of the day’s topical issues at 5:06pm – in a display of just how the Oireachtas’ priorities can seem strange – they’ll debate a 12-month-old committee report on offshore oil and gas exploration.

Sinn Féin round off the day with 90 minutes of debate on a motion about the Good Friday Agreement, marking its 15th birthday, noting that a financial package for the North agreed at St Andrews in 2006 hasn’t been delivered, and calling on Ireland to engage with the UK and make sure it arrives. Debate wraps up at 9pm and continues tomorrow.

All of the day’s Dáil business can be viewed here.

SEANAD

The Seanad’s usual 75-minute kick-off, debating the matters of the day in the Order of Business (2:30pm), is followed by the Oireachtas’s final debates on the Taxi Regulation Bill 2012 (3:45pm) – when Senators will discuss the final batch of possible amendments to a new system of taxi licencing.

The day’s Seanad business can all be viewed here.

COMMITTEES

While the health committee again meets behind closed doors to finalise its abortion hearings later this week, there are only three committees holding public sessions:

  • The Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation committee gets the day going at 1:30pm when its discusses plans to reform the EU’s single trademark registration system, before hearing from city and county council officials on the operation of local enterprise boards and plans to merge them back into the councils. (Watch here.)
  • There are plenty of EU legislative proposals on the agenda at the Agriculture committee when it meets at 2pm. Among them are urgent plans to allow the payment of rural development funds for 2013 and 2014; there’s also news on tariff quotas for wine and prohibition on some fish imports. Later, representatives from IMPACT will weigh on the proposed sale of Coillte’s timber harvesting rights. (Watch here.)
  • While some of their colleagues attend the Jobs committee, officials from Cork County Council, Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council will be joined by officials from Pavee Point at the Environment committee. They’ll discuss local authority procedures regarding the provision of housing for Travellers. (Watch here.)

Explainer: How does a Bill become a law?

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