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, Seanad and various Oireachtas committees today.

DÁIL

The traditional theatre of Leaders’ Questions begins the day at 10:30am, with 30 minutes set aside afterwards to agree to the rest of the day’s agenda.

With a few interruptions throughout the day – listed in a moment – there are three proposed laws to be dealt with, in this order:

• The National Lottery Bill, which sets up a new lottery regulator ahead of the proposed sale of the National Lottery licence later this year;
• The Industrial Development (Science Foundation Ireland) (Amendment) Bill, which allows Science Foundation Ireland to fund cross-border projects and to fund advanced research (rather than just basic research, which it’s limited to for now); and
• The Credit Reporting Bill, which sets up a new state bureau to act as a central registry for personal credit records.

There’ll be interruptions for lunch (1:30pm); questions to the Minister for Education and Skills at 2:30pm; and discussion of four of the day’s topical issues at 3:45pm.

The last item of the day, at 7:30pm, is the second 90-minute stint of debate when debate resumes on Sinn Féin’s bill abolishing the statute of limitations for victims of symphysiotomy, allowing them to pursue civil action against the government for the treatments performed on them. The government has indicated that it will accept the bill.

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

SEANAD

The Seanad returns from its Easter holidays at 2:30pm with the usual 75-minute plenary debate on the day’s agenda, before junior minister Alan Kelly pops in at 3:45pm for a little over two hours of final discussion on new rules governing taxi licences.

At 6pm Fianna Fáil will begin two hours of debate on a motion about distressed mortgages, and their link to mental health. There’ll be a vote on that at 8pm, after which three miscellaneous topical matters will be mentioned to round out the day.

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

COMMITTEES

To make up for the pretty light Seanad schedule, there are seven committee meetings. Here are the seven, in the order they begin:

• The Environment committee is first up at 10am, discussing the impact of climate change, particularly on impoverished areas of Africa, with figures from Kenya Climate Justice Women Champions, the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance, and the Pastoral Women’s Council of Tanzania. (Watch here.)
• At 11am the Transport and Communications committee will consider six various plans for new European laws – mostly dealing with motoring and satellite navigation systems – before hearing the thoughts of Alcohol Action Ireland on the possibility of banning alcohol sponsorship in sport. (Watch here.)
• At 1pm officials from the Department of Education visit the Education and Skills committee to discuss how best to encourage multilingualism. (Watch here.)
• The Finance Committee discusses banking charges in the Irish financial sector with representatives from ISME and the Central Bank at 2pm. (Watch here.)
• Also at 2pm, figures from Pavee Point and the Irish Traveller Movement visit the Justice Committee to continue their appeals for legal recognition of Traveller ethnicity. (Watch here.)
• At 3pm the Foreign Affairs committee discusses the treatment of gay people in Uganda – home of the infamous ‘Kill the Gays’ Bill – and then hears from Eamon Gilmore about future meetings of the EU’s Foreign Affairs council. (Watch here.)
• Finally, at 5pm, the Petitions committee discusses how to deal with the latest matters submitted by the public. (Watch here.)

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