No Government meetings, no Coalition leaders around to take Leaders’ Questions, no President in the Áras.
But it won’t be a quiet Tuesday in Irish politics.
As Mondays go it was a frenetic day politically even though the principal figures were “as láthair”.
From an Irish perspective, the strange thing was that almost all of it has been happening in New York.
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It’s the location for the United Nations General Assembly meeting this week. President Michael D Higgins, Taoiseach Simon Harris, Tánaiste Micheál Martin and Minister for the Environment and former Green Party leader Eamon Ryan are all there.
And all had a lot to say yesterday about further Israeli attacks and the horribly deteriorating situation in Lebanon; and about that letter that Michael D Higgins sent to the new President of Iran and also about Ireland (mainly the mess that is the national children’s hospital).
Our colleague, Jennifer Bray, has been putting in a big shift in New York over the past two days.
The context is gloomy. It was another terrible day when intense Israeli bombardment of Lebanon killed almost 500 people, as part of an effort to crush Hizbullah, and its large arsenal of rockets and military materiel, much of it supplied by Iran. We report that at least 35 children died in the attacks with an astounding 1,650 wounded. It’s the worst day of violence and highest death toll in Lebanon for almost two decades.
The President had a feisty, and testy, media conference where he said he had no regrets about his criticism of Israel, for circulating the letter he sent to Iran. He also maintained it was the media, and not he, which had suggested the letter had been leaked by the Israeli embassy in Dublin. Here’s the earlier story for reference.
Jennifer reports that on Sunday he told journalists the letter had been circulated by the Israeli embassy, but that he did not know how they obtained it. It led to suggestions of a leak.
Yesterday in New York, he said: “You should ask where the criticism came from and how the letter was circulated and by whom and for what purpose. It was circulated from the Israeli embassy.”
She writes the comments were widely interpreted as Mr Higgins believing that the letter had been leaked, although a spokesman for the President said he had “made no accusations of a leak”.
Today’s In the News podcast looks at the controversy in detail.
Harris meets Abbas amid Israeli onslaught
The Taoiseach held a bilateral meeting with President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in New York last night. It was the first meeting between the politicians since Ireland recognised the state of Palestine in May this year.
Of course, the meeting happened as a day of difficult-to-conceive violence claimed almost 500 lives in Lebanon.
Speaking in advance of the meeting, the Taoiseach said: “Ireland recognised the State of Palestine to help keep alive the hope of a two-state solution with Palestine and Israel living peacefully side-by-side.”
Later today, the Taoiseach will hold bilateral meetings with King Abdullah of Jordan and the secretary general of the United Nations, António Guterres.
As it happened, earlier in the day, Harris had the perfect put-down for Israel’s comments on Higgins’s letter. He said he was not going to fall into an Israeli trap where they made the letter, and not what its military is doing, the issue.
“I’ve just come from a meeting where the Palestinian prime minister is broken down in tears about children in his own country being killed by Israel today, and there are at least 21 children that have been killed by Israel in Lebanon today. You’ll excuse me for not getting overly exercised about the issue of a letter ... Where the letter came from is utterly irrelevant to the issue at hand.”
Meryl Streep adds lustre to event on plight of Afghan women
The Hollywood actor attended a United Nations event that looked at the lives of Afghan women, and their exclusion from so many facets of society, including politics.
Micheál Martin was one of the speakers at that event and had a chance to meet the actor, who is no stranger to Ireland. She played the lead role in the film version of Dancing at Lughnasa, directed by Pat O’Connor. Jennifer was again on hand to report on it.
The national children’s hospital disaster
Leo Varadkar came to be haunted by his prediction that the national children’s hospital would be completed by 2020 at a cost of €700 million, short of a meteorite hitting the planet.
Well, metaphorically, that is what happened.
The project to build a state-of-the-art flagship hospital has become a saga, and an outrageously expensive one.
It’s yet another example of unforgivable and unbridled spending by the State using taxpayers’ money, with no regard for value-for-money.
It’s yet another example, too, of a project backed by the State that has no relationship with the concept of “on time” and “on budget”.
As Mark Hilliard reports, the board charged with building the hospital will tell an Oireachtas committee on Tuesday that the completion date will be June 2025.
The opening statement of the chief officer of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB), David Gunning, is scathing of the contractor Bam which – at current estimates – will be over 2½ years behind schedule in delivering the hospital.
The NPHDB said that Bam had promised 1,700 productive operatives at peak, but the highest it achieved was circa 1,260 and that dropped to 612 in August 2024.
“As of today, not one room has been fully completed in line with the standard and finish as set out in the contract. There are 5,678 clinical spaces in the new hospital, and whilst, to date, Bam has offered 3,128 as complete, none were completed to the required standard ... Meanwhile, Bam continues to submit large volumes of claims, including duplication and triplication of claimed time and value.
“It is the view of the NPHDB that Bam is seeking to implement a strategy to exert pressure on the State to secure additional money above the contract sum, by whatever means.”
That’s pretty damning. Bam, for its part, has rejected those allegations and has maintained the hospital-build phase is now 93 per cent complete, notwithstanding what it says was much additional work generated by a substantial number of design changes.
Budget 2025
It’s unusual with just a week to go that the budget is not dominating everybody’s thoughts. Apparently things are moving slowly with still many of the bilateral meetings still to be held between the two Ministers holding the purse-strings and the line Ministers. Sources have been telling our political staff that the talks are to continue long into the weekend and probably spill over until Monday.
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) has produced a very interesting pre-budget commentary.
While there has been much commentary in the media on the over-reliance on corporation tax, the PBO suggests there could be risks associated with income tax.
“Income tax receipts also exhibit concentration risks. Ireland’s progressive income tax system ensures that higher earners contribute a larger share of their income to public finances, aiding in reducing income inequality and funding essential public services. However, this system’s reliance on a small group of high-income earners introduces vulnerabilities.”
According to Revenue data for 2022, the top 8.5 per cent of tax units (those earning more than €100,000) contributed 55.6 per cent of income tax and USC payments. Additionally, the Tax Strategy Group (TSG) papers highlighted that the top 20 per cent of earners pay 79 per cent of total income tax receipts.
“Employees of multinational companies play a significant role in this, with foreign multinational employment accounting for 55 per cent of all corporate employment- related income tax and USC receipts in 2022, despite representing only 35 per cent of corporate employment.
“This reliance on a small group of taxpayers exposes the public finances to potential shocks. Economic downturns, changes in employment patterns, or shifts in the global economy could disproportionately affect these high earners, leading to significant fluctuations in tax revenue.”
Cormac McQuinn reports that renters could be in line for a tax credit worth up to €1,000 in the budget.
Morning Reads
- Conor Gallagher writes that Irish troops in southern Lebanon could be directly drawn into the conflict.
- In a follow-up to our article from Monday, we report that the airline company which was alleged to have been transporting military equipment bound for Israel over Irish air space has begun rerouting its flights. In New York, Micheál Martin suggested that such companies be banned from using Irish air space. Conor Gallagher and Jennifer Bray have the details.
- Fintan O’Toole uses comments by the Taoiseach last week that a second payment of child benefit for disadvantaged families would have to wait as the basis for his column.
- Jack Horgan-Jones has an explainer on the background to the politics of Higgins’s letter.
Playbook
The absence of senior members of Government means that the Cabinet meeting this week will happen on Thursday, not Tuesday.
The Opposition parties, in addition to civic society groups, will publish their alternative budgets this week. The most closely scrutinised will be that of Sinn Féin.
Childcare is likely to be one of the main debating points around the budget with both Labour and Sinn Féin setting out strong alternative proposals.
Dáil
- 2pm: Leaders’ Questions
- 3.05pm: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2024 – Second Stage
- 6.45pm: Private Members’ Business (Sinn Féin): Motion re Healthcare Services in the Midwest Region
- 8.47pm: Parliamentary Questions to Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys
- 11.05pm Dáil adjourns
Seanad
- 3.15pm: Planning and Development Bill 2023 – Report and Final Stages
- 9pm: Seanad adjourns
Committees
3pm: Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
Discussion on Electoral arrangements to protect democracy and ballot integrity.
- Officials from Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
- Representatives from An Coimisiún Toghcháin, The Electoral Commission
- Representatives from Dublin city Returning Officer
3.30pm: Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Discussion on the complexities of the provision of Non-disclosure Agreements in the Maternity Protection (Amendment) & Miscellaneous Provisions Bill.
- Roderic O’Gorman, Minister for Children
Click to see the full Dáil, Seanad and committee schedules
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