WHAT’S GOING ON in Leinster House?

Every day the Dáil and Seanad are sitting, TheJournal.ie brings you the most comprehensive guide to what our lawmakers are getting up to in the Houses of the Oireachtas.

So, here is what we can expect to be happening in the Dáil, Seanad and Committee rooms today…

3 things we’ll be keeping an eye on

• Dáil: Leaders’ Questions – Back from his Asian adventure, Taoiseach Enda Kenny takes questions from leaders of the opposition parties at 3.15pm.
• Dáil: Nelson Mandela - TDs will make statements on the death of Nelson Mandela for up to 50 minutes at around 5pm.
• Dáil: Bethany Home – The government’s decision not to provide a specific redress scheme for survivors of the Bethany Home comes under scrutiny as Sinn Féin’s motion calling for an apology and redress is debated from 7.30pm.

Everything else that’s happening in the Dáil

• With the gardaí in the news quite a bit recently we’ll be keeping an eye on the Justice Minister Alan Shatter’s answers to questions on his portfolio from 2pm.
• The Taoiseach answers pre-submitted questions at 3.36pm or a little after that before the Order of Business at 4.36pm.
• After statements on Mandela, it’s Topical Issues and then a number of motions including the order for the final stages of the bill which changes levies and tax reliefs for health insurance.
• After Sinn Féin’s private member’s business, the Dáil adjourns at 9pm.

Everything else that’s happening the Seanad

• The Seanad starts its day with the Order of Business at 2.30pm.
• Then at 3.45pm Senators consider the bill to transfer responsibility for water provision to Irish Water with Minister of State Fergus O’Dowd taking committee stage.
• Then its Matters on the Adjournment before the upper house itself adjourns.

Everything else that’s happening in the Committees

• How do we develop a plan to capture the full value of our genealogical heritage? That’s what the Environment, Culture and Gaeltacht Committee will be considering at a meeting in Room 4 at 2.15pm with representatives from the Genealogical Society, the Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland and others.
• Minister of State for European Affairs, Paschal Donohoe, pops into Room 1 at 2pm to update members of the EU Affairs Committee on the forthcoming Council of Ministers meeting and to the recently-announced review of Irish Foreign Policy.
• Representatives from Bord Iascaigh Mhara will update the Fisheries sub-committee on Fisheries Local Action Groups or FLAGs as they are known in Room 3 at 2pm.
• The Health Committee will scrutinise a number of EU legislative proposals including one on medical devices and another on regulating the price of drugs with the Department of Health and the Irish Medicines Board in Room 2 at 5.15pm.
• The Jobs Committee meets in Room 2 at 1.30pm to discuss several EU legislative proposals including one concerning disclosure of non-financial and diversity information by big companies and another on guidelines for employment policies of EU member states.

Here’s how to watch what’s going on in Leinster House today

• Dáil Éireann
• Seanad Éireann
• Committee Room 1
• Committee Room 2
• Committee Room 3
• Committee Room 4
• To access streams on iOS, click here

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