So it’s Liberation Day. Later on, US president Donald Trump will announce that he is imposing widespread tariffs on imports into the US. He has called it Liberation Day.
History may come to recall it using a very different title.
Especially, as if many economists predict, the global economy could go belly-up if it kicks off an all-out trade war.
Tariffs are essentially a tax on goods entering a jurisdiction, which has the direct impact of increasing the price either for the importer, or for the end user. What’s unknown at this moment is if he’s going to impose tariffs on all countries or focus on those with the biggest trade deficits. There is also uncertainty over the level at which the tariffs will be imposed. The speculation is they will be imposed across the board and could be a flat 20 per cent.
As we report in the lead story today, the biggest fear for the Irish Government is that the reciprocal tariffs which will be announced by the EU could lead to a worse outcome for Ireland, including stiffer tariffs on the pharmaceutical sector and on US tech companies with European headquarters in Ireland.
The Government is understood to have pressed its concerns in Brussels, though sources said all EU countries are lobbying the European Commission to take their national interests into account when framing the bloc’s response to the tariffs.
“Our view has always been: ‘don’t do things that are going to hurt us’,” a Government spokesman said about Dublin’s representations to the commission.
Ireland and other states such as France have been lobbying against tariffs on imports of US bourbon over fears exports of Irish whiskey and French wine and champagne will be hit in retaliation, as Mr Trump has signalled the US would do.
The seeds of division within the US have been well sowed. Its politics is now partisan with an ideologically right Republican Party forging ahead against a divided and enfeebled Democratic Party. The straws in the wind don’t suggest that Trump’s popularity has tanked. The party easily retained two Congressional seats in Florida, although the Democrats can claim victory by winning an election for a Supreme Court Court seat in that state. Meanwhile, a Democratic Senator from New Jersey, Cory Booker, spent a record 25 hours on his feet talking as an act of protest and defiance against the policies now being imposed.
Never ending row over the ‘grubby’ deal with ‘Lowry’s lads’
The world may be on the verge of ruin but the Dáil has more important fish to fry this week, namely the Jarndyce v Jaundice row between the Government and Opposition over Michael Lowry’s group of regional Independents.
The matter came to a (sort of) conclusion yesterday with the confidence vote relating to Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy. It was always going to be passed, as it happened the margin was 96 votes to 71. Marie O’Halloran has a full report here.
The debate was certainly not raucous or splenetic like it was last week but it was bitter. There is an animus between both sides of the House that can’t be ignored.
So what happens now? As Cormac McQuinn and Marie O’Halloran report the likelihood is the row will now simmer down. The Opposition will not block the formation of committees but will continue to refuse to offer ‘pairs’ (a practice where an Opposition TD agrees not to vote to neutralise the effect of a Government Minister on duty abroad, or a TD who is sick).
Opposition parties also said last night that they will not disrupt the first ‘Other TDs’ session in the Dáil today, which will allow members of the Lowry technical group to ask questions of the Taoiseach.
Some of the more memorable jibes from yesterday’s debate:
Taoiseach Micheál Martin went for the jugular right off the bat. “The arsonists are demanding that we censure the fire brigade”,” he claimed.
Mary Lou McDonald responded in kind. What happened was “shameless, “brazen, arrogant and on display for all to see”.
She claimed a “wrecking ball was driven through” standing orders.
She said that irrespective of the outcome of the vote, Ms Murphy’s position was “untenable”.
That’s a big charge to make.
Labour’s Ivana Bacik demanded to know the details of the “secret, grubby deal the Government negotiated” with Michael Lowry.
Cian O’Callaghan read out extracts from the Moriarty tribunal’s findings on Lowry. He also said that the Tipperary TD personally sued the journalist Sam Smyth in what he claimed was a “vindictive attempt” to ruin Mr Smyth.
Independent TD Sean Canney (Galway East) said if what happened in the Dáil last week happened in a pub, “you’d say people had drink taken”.
Louise O’Reilly of Sinn Féin: “Is there no limit to the lengths this Government will go to to protect Michael Lowry and your grubby little deal?”
Richard Boyd-Barrett of People Before Profit: “The Government doesn’t care about corruption and are quite willing to do anything in order to sustain themselves in power.”
Paul McAuliffe of Fianna Fáil said this of the Opposition: “Like a drunken stag party, they cry foul, because they didn’t hear the call for last orders.”
In the same neighbourhood of simile, Fine Gael Minister Patrick O’Donovan said what happened last week was what you would expect to find on Harcourt Street at four o’clock in the morning.
The Ceann Comhairle made a short statement to the House at the end of the debate. “I wish to assure all members on all sides of this house, I bear no ill will, and my door is always open.”
Don’t expect the Opposition leaders to come knocking soon. There is a bitterness arising out of this debate that will linger for a long while.
Best Reads
Pat Leahy’s analysis sets out three big consequences to the events that unfolded in the Dáil yesterday.
Marie O’Halloran reports that People Before Profit TDs have told the Dáil that some of the Mothers Against Genocide group arrested outside the Dáil were subject to a strip-search.
Miriam Lord’s sketch on yesterday’s confidence motion puts a wrecking ball through all the dross.
Kathy Sheridan bemoans the lack of parliamentary standards as Chamber increasingly become a free-for-all.
Arthur Beesley reports that only one religious body has made a serious offer of cash redress to survivors of mother and baby homes.
Playbook
Dáil Éireann
9am: Topical Issues
10am: Private Members’ Business (Independent and Parties Technical Group): Motion re Housing Emergency Measures in the Public Interest
12pm: Leaders’ Questions (Sinn Féin, Labour Party, Social Democrats, Independent Technical Group)
12.34pm: Other Members’ Questions
12.42pm: Questions on Policy or Legislation
2.12pm: Questions to Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon.
3.48pm: Statements on Diverting Young People from Criminal Activity.
5.48pm: Financial Motion by the Minister for Finance
6.48pm: Finance (Provision of Access to Cash Infrastructure) Bill 2024 – Committee and remaining Stages
9.48pm: Deferred Divisions
10.18pm: Dáil adjourns
Seanad Éireann
10.30am: Commencement Matters
11.30am: Order of Business
1pm: Statements on Childcare
3pm: Statements on Housing
5.15pm: Private Members’ Business: Air Navigation and Transport (Arms Embargo) Bill 2024 – Committee Stage
7.15pm: Seanad adjourns
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