Ireland will follow the lead of the UK and ban face masks, or coverings, being worn in public places on the basis that a garda suspects it is being used for criminal intent, or being used in an intimidatory fashion.
Clause 86 of the UK’s Crime and Policing Bill – currently before parliament – will make it a criminal offence for a person to conceal their identity at a protest.
A similar measure has been considered here.
In August 2024, then minister for justice Helen McEntee said she intended to draft legislation for a similar ban in Ireland. That followed a series of violent protests in Dublin, including the previous November’s riot on, and around, O’Connell Street.
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Now, her successor, Jim O’Callaghan seems to be making good on that particular political pledge.
As Conor Lally and Jack Horgan-Jones report, the new legislation will allow a garda to request a person wearing a face covering to remove it in certain circumstances.
If the request is met by a refusal, the individual will be committing a criminal offence and can be arrested and prosecuted.
The proposed legislation, they write, is designed to tackle far-right protesters but will extend much further and gives gardaí a wide-ranging powers .
It is the latest in a raft of “law and order” legislation being promoted by the Minister for Justice in response to the public perception that the streets of the capital are unsafe.
It also sets him on a collision course again with civil liberties organisations, which say such a measure will further erode personal freedoms such as the expression of opinion in public places.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties says it is the latest such measure which has the potential to be intrusive of personal rights, following Garda body-worn cameras and plans for the increasing use of facial recognition technology.
Israel begins fresh campaign
Israel yesterday announced it was expanding its military campaign in Gaza and forcing the entire population to move south and that it intends to hold on to all the territory it has seized in the move.
Gaza has a population of over 2.15 million. That’s the equivalent of Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow.
It’s like forcing everybody – every single human being – who lives in our capital city and its hinterland to move to a cordoned-off area on the coast in north Dublin, without homes or shelter, without access to aid, and still be subject to indiscriminate bombing and death.
The blockade of Gaza by Israel has now gone on for two months, with no humanitarian supplies being allowed in. Now Israel has ordered all aid agencies to shut down their distribution of what remains of aid in the strip.
The Irish Government is, unfortunately, in a minority of countries that has not turned a blind eye to the utter contempt shown by Israel for those living in Gaza.
As Marie O’Halloran reports, Tánaiste Simon Harris said on Monday that Israel’s plan to seize all of Gaza was “despicable and unconscionable”.
Anybody who has seen Louis Theroux’s sobering documentary on right-wing Israeli settlers will have at least some suspicion that the overall plan of their government is to remove residents of Gaza to third countries. It is beyond horror.
As was the case during the pandemic, Dr Mike Ryan of the World Health Organisation captured the views of many Irish people when describing Israeli actions in Gaza as an “abomination”.
“We are watching this unfold before our very eyes and we’re not doing anything about it. As a physician, I‘m angry. I‘m angry with myself that I‘m not doing enough.
“This is an abomination. It’s an abomination. We have to ask ourselves the question, how much blood is enough to satisfy whatever the political objectives are of any regime,” he said.
Uisce Éireann’s €1bn ‘budget boost’
Jack Horgan-Jones writes a really interesting report this morning on how an additional €1 billion from the sale of AIB shares, allotted to Uisce Éireann for ring-fenced infrastructural spending, ended up being used by the utility for, essentially, existing spending.
As Jack writes, the utility’s chairman Jerry Grant told then minister for housing Darragh O’Brien that the €1 billion would have to be used to avoid increased borrowing by Uisce Éireann.
“He also told the then Government that the utility would have to use some of the money immediately to fill a €300 million funding hole in its budget allocation for 2025.” In short the chairman said the money would provide no extra financial firepower in the coming years.
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Playbook
There is no Dáil or Seanad today but there is a Cabinet meeting.
Besides the proposed face-mask legislation, another big item on the agenda is a memo from Tánaiste Simon Harris to expedite ratification of the trade deal between European and Canada, known as Ceta.
Jack Horgan-Jones and Martin Wall report on the agenda of the meeting.
It was shelved in 2022 after a successful legal challenge from then Green Party TD Patrick Costello, with the Supreme Court which found the government’s approach was unconstitutional and forcing the previous Coalition to pause its plan to ratify the deal.
Among the other items being discussed are the outcome of the National Economic and Social Council report on compact growth, which has strong recommendations on brownfield sites, and more cost rental homes.
A report from Minister of State for Mental Health Mary Butler is also expected to be discussed, which points to a lower number of suicides in Irish society during 2023.
The other big event today is the Global Irish Summit in Dublin Castle, which involves Government ministers and senior Irish diplomats from around the world.
Martin Wall has a full report.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Simon Harris and several Ministers will address the Summit with a message that the Republic must continue to retain its values at a time of significant change internationally.
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