THE DÁIL HAS adjourned for its annual summer recess and will not sit again until 18 September.

The lower house rose earlier this evening and will remain out of session for the next nine weeks.

However, Oireachtas committees will sit until the end of the month while the Seanad is to spend another few days debating the abortion legislation.

This term has been dominated by a number of issues with abortion topping the agenda as TDs discussed and debated the report into the death of Savita Halapannavar last October and later passed the landmark Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill following a marathon session.

Legislation to liquidate the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation and scrap the promissory note arrangement was also passed while the Haddington Road Agreement was also agreed but not without much debate and dispute over weeks and months.

All of that meant that Ireland’s presidency of the European Union was largely overshadowed.

When TDs return in September they will be mere weeks away from the Budget – scheduled for 15 October – and the referendum to abolish the Seanad.

But what do the deputies make of it all? Labour’s Aodhán Ó Ríordáin summed it up today:

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