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 – The Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore will be expected to take questions from the opposition parties and hopefully say something mildly interesting at 10.30am. Some last minute Seanad referendum rhetoric perhaps?
• Dáil: Finance Questions – The Minister for Finance Michael Noonan takes questions on his portfolio at 4.30pm where the big issues related to his department will come up. Expect something on the Budget but he won’t be giving too much away.
• Committees: C&AG – The annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - chapters 6, 12 and 13 – will be considered with the secretary general of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Robert Watt, who’ll also be talking about his Department’s activities. All a bit technical but all very important. It gets underway at 10am tomorrow in Committee Room 1.

Everything else that’s happening in the Dáil

• After Leaders’ Questions TDs get down to the Order of Business at 10.51am or a little later.
• Then there’s consideration of a motion related to the Ombudsman for Children which should last around 20 minutes.
• Then TDs continue debate on the second stage of the new Freedom of Information Bill with Minister Brendan Howlin in attendance.
• After that attention turns to the second stage Road Traffic Bill.
• Then there’s Topical Issues at 3.42pm before the Dáil adjourns at around 5.45pm after Michael Noonan answers questions.

Still with us? Here’s a picture of a lovely sloth who’s looking forward to watching proceedings in the Seanad today. Maybe:

Pic: Praziquantel/Flickr

Everything else that’s happening in the Seanad

• Senators start their day with a discussion on anything and everything at 10.30am during the Order of Business.
• At 11.45am Senators will give statements of appreciation on the life and work of Seamus Heaney.
• At 2.15pm there will be debate on the second stage of the bill to dissolve Country Enterprise Boards with Richard Bruton expected to attend.
• Then there are Matters on the Adjournment before the upper house goes home for the weekend, to return next Monday knowing what, if any, future it has.

Everything else that’s happening in the Committees

• Just one other thing happening in the Committee rooms today with the 20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language and Related Matters (Sub-Committee) holding hearings in Committee Room 4 from 11am on the topic of: ‘Encouraging the speaking of Irish across the country’. Lovely.

Here’s how to watch what’s going on 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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