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

Eamon Gilmore’s weekly stint of Leaders’ Questions begins the day at 10:30am, with a brief discussion on the rest of the day’s agenda following at around 11am.

The day is almost entirely eaten up with the first of two days of debate on the Social Welfare Bill 2013, which gives effect to most of the social welfare changes announced in Budget 2013. There are few new measures in it, so the debate will really be two more days of discussing Joan Burton’s progress so far.

Discussion will be adjourned at 6:30pm (and resume tomorrow), to leave time for discussion of four topical issues and for Jimmy Deenihan to take Questions to the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht at 7:18pm.

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

SEANAD

The usual Order of Business discussion begins the day at 10:30am before Paul Murphy MEP continues a series of addresses to the Seanad to mark Ireland’s 40 years of EU membership. His speech, beginning at 11:45am, will focus on transatlantic trade and partnership.

The rest of the afternoon will be spent rushing through a debate on the FEMPI Bill 2013 – the legislation which imposes pay cuts for public workers earning over €65,000 a year. A vote on ‘second stage’ – the first vote, basically – will be taken at 5:30pm, with another few hours set aside for any final amendments.

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

COMMITTEES

Just the three public meetings today:

• The Environment sub-committee holds an all-day session – between 10:30 and 12:45, and again between 14:00 and 18:30 – to discuss proposed amendments to the Residential Tenancies Bill, which expands the role of the Private Residential Tenancies Board. (Watch here.)
• Also meeting at 10:30am is the Good Friday Agreement committee, which will firstly hear from Ruairí Quinn on how education can be used to undo social disconnection, before the presidents of the Letterkenny and Dundalk ITs attend at 11:30am to discuss cross-border access to colleges. (Watch here.)
• Finally, the EU Affairs committee meets a delegation from the French national assembly at 11:30am to discuss recent developments within the EU. (Watch here.)

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