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It is, I believe, the first time that The Irish Times political podcast, Inside Politics, has generated the main story for the newspaper or website.
Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan came into our studio in Tara Street yesterday for an interview as part of a series with party leaders.
As Colm Keena reports he told host Hugh Linehan: “What the employers and the unions are saying, in unison, is that the State needs to be bigger. The success of our country and the economy, which has seen a large, almost one million additional people in the workforce, has not been matched by a similar extension in the public service.”
Ryan said the financial crisis may have left a legacy of being “terrified” of budget deficits and there may have been an ideological aversion to running deficits but that has changed. It is now recognised that we need to invest in the public service to deliver what needs to be delivered, he added.
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He identified local authorities as one of the areas in the public sector where there were critical staff shortages. They needed more staff engaged in engineering, water services, technical planning and the administrative system, and An Bord Pleanála needed more resources, he said.
“People are coming into the country in very large numbers, including returning emigrants, and we need to scale up to deal with the increase in population that we are seeing,” he said.
Ryan also had a bit of a swipe at Kerry Group and referred to the agri-food giant’s recent record income results. He argued it needed to give back some of its profits to protect nature.
Eamon Ryan: We need to scale up the State to make it fit for purpose
More promises on tax cuts
Meanwhile at the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting last night, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said workers “who pay too much tax” and middle-income families would be priorities in Budget 2024.
Tax reductions for middle-income earners is a recurrent theme for the Taoiseach and his party, even though it has rarely transferred into anything when budget-time comes along.
Almost in the same breath, the Taoiseach promised a similar welfare package to last year’s, which amounted to an additional €1 billion in spend.
As Jennifer Bray reports, Varadkar told his parliamentary party last night that the budget would have a tax package, spending measures, and money set aside for a rainy-day fund.
The threads of those separate political stories seem to point to a paradox of lower taxes and higher State spending. But isn’t that what bankrupted California earlier this century?
Yes, but there is one difference. Our budget will be sponsored by one generous donor which will make a lot of these things possible. Corporation tax. We are raking it in. A total of €22.7 billion was generated last year. This year it is forecast to rise again to €24 billion. Analysis by the Revenue Commissioners in recent weeks show that just five companies provide over half of that total.
As Varadkar commented recently it is the “goose that laid the golden egg”. We know we can’t rely on it forever.
Will parties apply the whip to changes to abortion legislation?
The three main parties will take different approaches to any Dáil votes to changes in the abortion laws.
Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have indicated they will allow conscience votes – in another word a free vote.
On the other hand, Sinn Féin TDs will be whipped.
A Sinn Féin spokesperson told The Irish Times: “Sinn Féin elected representatives are expected to respect policy decisions taken by the ardfheis and to vote in line with party policy.”
The party’s current policy was decided at its ardfheis in 2018, the year of the referendum on abortion. It was that that led Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín, a prominent anti-abortion campaigner, to part company with Sinn Féin.
Indeed, as Sarah Burns reports he told the Dáil yesterday: “The Government persuaded many thousands of people to vote for the abortion referendum on the basis there would be some safeguards for children, yet five years later, it looks like the Government is going to wash away the remaining safeguards.”
The Meath West TD said it now appeared that the three-day wait period was under threat and “the ability of the majority of doctors to refuse to carry out abortions on the basis of conscientious objection will be threatened”.
Meanwhile, Jennifer Bray reports that nine counties have fewer than five GPs providing abortion care.
Data compiled in the report by barrister Marie O’Shea shows that up to 2022, Monaghan had only one GP providing abortion services, as did Longford.
Niall Collins
A week after online site The Ditch revealed that Niall Collins did not remove himself from a council committee discussion discussing a site in which his wife had an interest, he is expected to come into the Dáil today to explain his actions.
As Cormac McQuinn reports, no time has been indicated yet but it is widely anticipated it will be today. It is not known yet if he will take questions. When he made a similar statement in March he took no questions which led to criticism as he did not address some of the issues of contention in his statement.
Mr Collins was part of a local area committee of Limerick County Council that recommended disposal of the property in Patrickswell, Co Limerick in 2007 when he was a member of the local authority. His wife had written to the council the previous month inquiring about that particular site.
Cormac has also written a profile of Niall Collins this morning.
BEST READS
Miriam Lord’s column reminds us that the most important and weighty subjects can be sometimes not the most exhilarating to follow for reporters and the public, and most of the TDs in the Dáil.
She begins: “More than two hours were set aside on Wednesday afternoon to hear statements on the anniversary of the Belfast Agreement. It was a very worthy exercise promising lots of serious reflection and weighty speeches so the chamber cleared out in minutes when the talking began.”
Mick Barry is taking on the mantle of his Socialist Party predecessor Joe Higgins by reaching for the most headline-catching metaphors and examples in his Dáil speeches. The sex lives of young people are being affected by skyrocketing rents was the theme yesterday.
An opinion piece from the head of the Defence Forces saying there are feelings of “shame and anger” within the forces over the assaults, sexual assaults, and bullying highlighted by the Women of Honour campaign.
PLAYBOOK
DÁIL
9am: Parliamentary Questions: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin
10.30am: Parliamentary Questions: Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan.
12pm: Leaders’ Questions.
1.45pm: Historic and Archaeological Heritage Bill 2023 – Second stage (resumed)
5pm: Topical Issues
5.48pm: Private Members’ Bill or Committee Report. Motion re Report entitled “Final Report of the Joint Committee on International Surrogacy”
7.03pm: Dáil adjourns
SEANAD
9.30am: Commencement Matters.
10.30am: Order of Business
11.45am: Motion regarding Sectoral Employment Order (Construction Sector) 2023.
12.30pm: Courts and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022 – Second Stage
2pm: Seanad adjourns
COMMITTEES
9.30am: Public Accounts.
Financial Statements 2021. An Bord Pleanála
1.30pm: Joint Committee on Good Friday Agreement.
Updates from the work to date of the Shared Island Unit with Department of Taoiseach officials, Aingeal O’Donoghue and Eoghan Duffy.
The full schedules for the Oireachtas can be found here.
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