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THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF which portfolio Michael McGrath was offered in the new European Commission, set to be unveiled today, has been postponed until next week by the institution.
A spokesperson said yesterday that the delay is as a result of processes by the Slovenian Parliament, which has still yet to formally approve its Government’s nominee.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is under pressure to get her new College of Commissioners organised and give relevant portfolios to those who have been nominated.
It’s understood that the Government is hopeful Ireland will retain some type of financial portfolio but von der Leyen’s decision has been classified to everyone but her small team of advisors.
Today announcement was meant to present the new Commission to the most senior MEPs in the European Parliament in Brussels. This was to give the chairpeople of each political grouping time to decide whether their party will agree with her proposal.
MEPs will vote on whether to approve or reject the Commission President’s proposal in Strasbourg, France next week, but processes in Slovenia have delayed the process.
Yesterday, a spokesperson for the European Commission said that the Slovenian parliament had contacted the institution asking that von der Leyen delay her announcement so its politicians could formally approve the Government’s nominee.
Another spokesperson for the European Parliament confirmed the presentation was postponed until 17 September. The vote in Slovenia is due to take place on Friday.
The spokesperson added that amendments will be made to the agenda of next week’s formal sitting of the European Parliament to allow MEPs to debate their decision.
So far, it has been reported that only the Socialists and Democrats group, of which Dublin’s Labour MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin is a member of, are unhappy with the current nominees as only four members of its grouping have been named as candidates for roles.
It is still largely expected that MEPs will vote in favour of von der Leyen’s proposed Commission next week.
Parliamentary committees will then publicly interview the candidates, create a report based on their performance and vote again in November to confirm the new Commission.
Commissioners are set to begin in their new roles sometime in December, if all is approved.
However, von der Leyen is understood to be having a difficult time assigning some portfolios, particularly for the new Defence Commissioner role, and to also achieve a gender balance in her new College.
The Commission President made gender balance a crucial element of her new Commission, requesting that every member states nominate both a man and a woman in July.
Only one member state followed the request, as most Governments argued that the Commission President was overstepping her authority when making it under the EU treaties.
The Irish Government chose to nominate former finance minister Michael McGrath only, for the same reason as other member states and later added that naming a second candidate would be unfair to McGrath since he had to leave a role as a Cabinet minister.
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DIT – The city is our campus…….HA
The Edge studied in DIT. Kevin street for a while – then go a better offer
Samuel Beckett did not describe Trinity students as ‘rich and thick.’ He in fact said that in response to a reprimand by the Head Master at Campbell College in Belfast who told him he was teaching “the cream of Ulster.”
“Yes,” replied Beckett, ‘rich and thick.”
TheDublinJournal.ie
Not defending trinners or anything, but Russian-English Dictionaries of Diplomacy have probably been very handy this last week.
UCD is like Fianna Fáil.. It skilfully combines the rural gombeen with the south Dublin jackeen. Accent and appearance aside they’re pretty much the same thing.
“Oh my gawd, Fintan. They have compoiled an article in thejourno which bundles us Trinners with the loikes of UCD. Even worse, they mention the college the girl you met last week was from when you really decided to rough it – was that DCU or DIT?”
A report last year showed that the colleges with the highest % in employment 6 months after graduation were UL & WIT so take that Dublin.
Tesco check-out doesn’t count.
A fact they don’t like to face up to. I went to UL for my degree and did my h.dip in UCD. I was honestly gob smacked at people in Dublin telling what ‘an amazing’ campus UCD has. It is, by comparison with UL, ugly, insufficient and out dated. Also, the standard of lecturing and organisation left a lot to be desired. The academic standard in UL was very competitive, more along the lines of the ethos of the old RTCs, which was a really healthy thing.
Maybe UL has an advantage as it secured a lot of private funding over the last 25-30 years, especially from Irish-Americans. However, that’s down to their own hard work and genius. No offense to UCD, but it simply doesn’t compare in most facets.
TCD 61st in the world, UCD 139th….UL 451-500. Bit you’re right, UL is pretty.
I’m afraid it’s about more than being pretty, which UL certainly is. UCD focuses hugely, probably disproportionally, on publications of papers and this is one of the core criteria of QS ranking of universities. This was an expressed opinion of a h.dip supervisor from UCD I spoke to a couple of years back. It’s a financial strategy more than an educational aim. And that is the problem with UCD. Maybe that clarifies it somewhat for you. My experience of both was vastly different. All institutions have their problems, but UL seems to have a very clear, structural development alongside very high academic standards. Sorry if it that doesn’t sit well with your assumptions .
I spent a year in UL, left because of those much-vaunted standards you speak of. I don’t see how having a staff that focus primarily on the publication of research is a negative, but then again an institution like UL with a local/regional outlook really can’t be compared to national and international institutions like TCD and UCD.
UL and WIT may have higher employment rates at first because they teach fairly specific degrees which can be directly applied to the job market.
The NUIs and Trin teach broader degrees across a wider spectrum of fields which can’t in many cases be directly applied to the Irish job market. This is why there is a difference.
Source please?
Adverts.ie should stick to advertising unwanted sofas and not writing “funny” articles. That was cack
The Ugg Boot winner in BESS in Trinners by a long shot, DBS a mere runner up
In a way we all have a Doctor of something in life, be it a father a mother a hard working grafter, or just even in a simple dog walker.
What?
A love doctor maybe?
Definitely a trinity head
Think your doctor is looking for you, it’s happy pill time
DAFUQ you on about lad?!
Shut your hole
Learnt all I needed to learn in the bestest collage in ireland. Mount Joy.
bestest ? im dubious bruv
Also collage.
Mountjoy is one word…
* I learned
He’s a collage artiste for chrissake, stop taking him to task on his grammar.
NCI – NOT a COMPLETE INSTITUTE
Sounds about right. Just hope its inproved sunce my day
Conor if only I’d remembered dublin jackeen when I called my brother’s new girlfriend a dublin jackass….haunts me to this day
I am going to ucd and as a lad who lived out in the countryside all my life,it was a big change
Indoor toilets took a while to get used to?
Since when is Russian “obscure and ultimately useless”!?
Since the 80s
Russian: Spoken and used by over 200 million people as a first language
Irish: As a first language : less than 100, 000
I know it isn’t true but when I was younger we used to joke that if you weren’t in an NUI you graduated with a hard-hat, a box of crayons and the keys to a hiace!!! Friendly banter is brilliant!
Eh…Griffith. Worth a mention? Thanks a bunch :P
Griffith’s Private, the others on the list aren’t.
Pretty sure Griffith sums up Rich and Thick a lot better than Trinity.
DBS is private.
It was a good while ago when I did the leaving, but that year was the first year DBS were included in the CAO system. Griffith to my knowledge is not. So if that’s still the case, it’s at least part-public, so to speak.
They’re all included on the CAO these says, however no matter what you get you can still but yourself in regardless of points anyways.
No grá for St Pats? It’s a small college but jaysus Coppers would go out of business if it weren’t for it!
I srarted in trinity last week as a mature student and I was completely overwhelmed by the place
The towel flickers! South side homos just don’t get it
The article was both terrible and offensive in equal measure. Consolidates my view never to read these sponsored stories…curiosity got the better of me this time.
dire article cut and paste gone down the jacks
Get a job! Load of bums won’t be ready to start working until they’re 35 years old.
Go IAU – best college in Dublin :)
ITB – Forever dodging the clampers!
St Patrick’s College Carlow all the way lads. Not much to do in the town though.
That’s predominantly a priest’s college … Carlow has a pretty big IT, where you won’t find Dub 4 knob-ends guffawing about the “Lass” they ‘snogged’ in Coppers, like .. ya … Also there’s tonnes to do in Carlow town. Did you ever leave the college grounds??
This song probably sums up the NCAD stereotype:
https://soundcloud.com/bennysmiles/ncad-girl-day-draft-benny
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