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WHAT ARE OUR politicians doing in the halls of Leinster House?
TheJournal.ie lets you know with our guide to what’s coming up in the Dáil, Seanad and various Oireachtas committees today.
DÁIL
Finance Minister Michael Noonan, fresh from telling the Week in Politics that three bankers will be in court before 2014 is out, is taking questions at 2pm. Leaders’ questions are at 3.15pm with Taoiseach Enda Kenny taking questions at 3.36pm.
There will be a special pause for tributes to former Ceann Comhairle and Fianna Fáil minister Padraig Falkner. He died at the age of 94 in June of last year but it can take some time for expressions of sympathy to come round in the Houses, unless a politician dies while still in office or in particularly tragic fashion.
Back to order of business then at 4.36pm as well as nearly an hour and a half of statements on how we got on at the European Council meeting last week - you may remember that youth unemployment was on the table there.
There will be a first vote just after 5.05pm - when Taoiseach Enda Kenny will be back from Strasbourg – on the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill.
Four topical issues will go up for discussion after that, before the report (from Oireachtas committee) and final stages of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013 comes up. The Taoiseach has already committed to the idea of a banking inquiry – we wonder why – and the idea of this bill is to give the legal framework for one.
At 7.30pm, Sinn Féin’s Pádraig Mac Lochlainn is using Private Members’ Time to introduce legislation allowing equality impact assessments to be carried out in public bodies. This will be unopposed and so a chunk of the evening will most likely stay with talk about the inquiries bill until 10pm.
All of the day’s Dáil business can be viewed here.
SEANAD
There are three pieces of legislation getting to report stage here today, when the Seanad will adopt changes suggested to bills which have already been debated. Expect Justice Minister Alan Shatter to drop in for the report stage of legislation designed to help combat human trafficking. It is scheduled for the 3.45pm slot along with legislation which will make changes to some court procedures.
Tightening up the regulation of financial institutions – and making it easier to enforce that regulation – is to be adopted after 6.30pm.
All of the day’s Seanad business can be viewed here.
COMMITTEES
Despite this $600bn spent on ‘defence’ annually in the USA…
@keenan, the US is the future third world.
We should build communal trailer parks and house the layabouts and scobies. If all the freeloaders houses were returned to the market it would solve a lot of problems.
Forty coats of tar and feathers for you sunshine
Anyone else think the two lads in the car look a bit scary?
The guy closest to the camera is slightly Christian Bale in the machinist…
So much for the American Dream!
As opposed to your Sinn Fein socialist paradise? Aint no dreams going to be made in that at all.
Would you prefer Fianna Fâils Wild West economics? That worked out great eh. Or the Blueshirts severe austerity and one of the worst unemployment rates in Europe. Don’t talk shit if you can’t argue an alternative.
“Blueshirts”… are you living in the 1930′s or something? Believe it or not but the Irish economy is stronger now than it has been in 8 years. Unemployment is falling rapidly and investment is rising. Let’s keep the “talk shit” policy to Sinn Fein circles
@Shane, what country are you living in. I along with others have emigrated and will never return.
Finally, Shane Sinn Feinn are not a socialist party, they are Republicans thugs masquerading as a party
dream on sheane. ya blue shirt
Jesus I thought these were photos of certain location in mullingar until I saw the caption.
should the article headline not read, “life inside a US trailer park”?
My God, the article makes these people seem like aliens and that the photographer got a lucky break to take the shots. I can imagine how annoyed these people were when they read the article. The photos are not very good either, bad composition, terrible lighting, etc. They look very unnatural and forced.
Unnatural and forced? Are we looking at the same pictures?..
Yes Paul Cadmin , I agree the pictures are terribly shot. Lighting is not on the subject and the posing of subjects is unnatural. Really poor and creates a miserable set of images.
“They took Errr Jerbs!”
Ha! If I could like this more than once I would.
Really great photography, beautifully captured. I particularly like the last one.
a price worth paying to keep the military complex going….murica fck yeah!
And you here to commit
It isn’t that bad, people in the usa spend their money differently to us, they eat out more than eat in etc & plenty of people in Ireland live in mobile homes. We have our own issues in this country without being smug and judging another one.
Do me babee one more time….
Ireland and most of Europe in 20 to 30 years time. A World that is over populated , poor, and Islamic.
Islamic? Will all the Christians, Jews, Hindus and Atheists disappear?
Muslim war will be won via higher birth rates. Not guns and bombs that’s just a side show.
Don’t look that bad
American Travellers.
Blaming the “Military Industrial Complex”. Is that the new buzz-phrase that Russell Brand has encouraged his army of trendy leftie keyboard warriors to use. You have the Che Guevara t-shirt, the Keffiyeh, and now you can have your very own simplified, yet intelligent sounding, phrase of the revolution.
Do people honestly believe that if America stopped spending money on weapons and defence that the myriad socio-economical reasons why people find themselves living in Trailer parks would be resolved? Lyndon B. Johnston attempted a “war on poverty” and invested billions in Welfare and Government Programs. And while many of those programs are good and help people, the reality is governments cannot prevent poverty.
Of course they can, and should, help the poorest, but just throwing money at the problem wont stop poverty. And using Government power (Or to use the euphemism of Leninist politicians “Workers control”) to impose “equality” has been shown, by successive failures in the Warsaw Pact nations, to be ineffective and morally wrong.
The reality is, governments should stay out of the “ending poverty” business. Instead, they should offer a minimum basic income and comprehensive voucher systems to the poor/people under the minimum basic income. They cannot simply direct an economy in any way they wish. They must allow wealth creators the freedom to create the the jobs, They must allow schools and universities to be incentivised to produce the best results. Simply put, the government should stay out of the way, only there to ensure the vulnerable do not suffer.
Great point tony. Unfortunately democracy dictates generally that the better off people dictate the health and education of the poor people. You could argue that government should just solely focus on economic and foeign policy and let the masses find their own way. Unfortunately though when a small group of elected people forget their people and focus on economic and foreign policies we end up with bazi Germany or Soviet russia.
There are also some very upmarket trailer parks filled with $200,000 motor homes and $100,000 trailers. That’s the US, there are rich and poor, just like here, and we give €700,000,000 to overseas aid for no real result.
How do you go from trailer parks to bashing overseas aid in one sentence?
Alice Cooper has kept himself in great shape
This is such a condescending insulting portrayal of life in a trailor park. Would have been better if one of the residents had taken this guys camera and turned it on him to see what clueless, sanctimonious privelage looks like. He brought a taxidermied fox?! Because trailor park trash sleep with wild animals?
Are they all inbred ?
have your say