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 day begins at 2pm when Ruairí Quinn steps up to take Questions to the Minister for Education and Skills, after which Enda Kenny takes over for Leaders’ Questions at 3:15pm and Questions to the Taoiseach for an hour at around 3:40pm.

Once the rest of the day’s agenda has been agreed to, and four of the day’s topical issues have been discussed (5:10pm), the Dáil will begin discussing legislation cutting pay for public workers earning over €65,000 a year.

The moves come as part of the ‘Haddington Road’ agreement, and will bring in sliding pay cuts – worth between 5.5 and 10 per cent of gross pay – which will be reversed between 2017 and 2018 (but only for those earning less than €100,000).

Debate on that legislation will pause at 7:30pm and continue for another hour at 9pm, until the close at 10pm. The time in between will be spent discussing Fianna Fáil’s motion of no confidence in Alan Shatter. The final vote on that, however, won’t be until tomorrow.

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

SEANAD

Senators begin their day with the usual 75-minute plenary discussion on anything-and-everything in the order of business (2:30pm), then discusses the new Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) (Amendment) Bill 2013, which has now been renamed the Criminal Justice Bill 2013, from 3:45pm.

At 5:15pm they’ll hold the last discussion on legislation to beef up the criminal penalties for human trafficking, before a final vote (if one is needed) at 5:45pm to send the Bill on its way to the Áras.

That isn’t the only legislation being sent on its way to the Áras today though: at 5:45pm the day wraps up with consideration of the Non-Use of Motor Vehicles Bill 2013, which changes the system under which drivers get their cars exempted from motor tax.

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

COMMITTEES

The Health committee starts compiling its report on the draft abortion legislation today, but it does so behind closed doors. Also meeting behind closed doors is the environment committee, so there’s only one meeting open for public eyes today:

• The committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation meets representatives of the Fast Track to IT group at 1:30pm. They’ll be discussing the group’s ‘Creating Policies that Work’ report, trying to identify how best people can be retrained to an IT profession so that those trained in struggling industries can have the chance to build a new career. (Watch here.)

Explainer: How does a Bill become a law?