After two months of summer break, the Oireachtas returns. The Dáil puts on a special fireworks display otherwise known as Leaders’ Questions especially for the occasion. A three-week period of pre-leaking about what’s in the budget begins, with just about every measure that’s in the document shared with the media and the public by the time Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe announces it on October 7th.
Normally, what happens in the chamber would dominate domestic politics. But there are other distractions this week. The hunt for a third (and perhaps a fourth) presidential candidate continues apace with a small number of hopeful Independents making pleas to councils right across the State. The other big political set piece of the autumn, the National Ploughing Championships, continues apace in Screggan, Co Offaly.
The budget
Donohoe and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers announced an overall package worth €9.4 billion when unveiling the Summer Economic Statement.
That will amount to €1.5bn of tax cuts and a spending package of €7.9bn. This is a 7.3 per cent increase on 2025. Both the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and Central Bank Governor Gabriel Makhlouf have cautioned about the expansionary nature of the budget, and the potential for overheating the economy.
Most of the tax package will be eaten up by the Government commitment to lower VAT rates for food and drink hospitality to 9 per cent. A lower rate of VAT for energy prices (a once-off measure) may also be retained against the backdrop of energy prices remaining high.
Housing and health (two of the big spending departments) will be under the spotlight. The figures for homelessness has crept above 15,000 with almost 5,000 children homeless.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris have both given some hints, with funds to target child poverty, more spending for childcare, some relaxation of the means test for carers, stimuli for small business and the cost of education.
What will be absent from this year’s budget are once-off measures that were worth €2.2 billion last year.
However, expect a flurry of lobbying on this from Ministers, reaching a crescendo in early October. That will include the removal of a €1,000 subsidy for third-level college students, a feature of the budget over the past few years. The Government will come under enormous pressure to walk back on that one over the coming weeks.
The Eoin Hayes ‘blackface’ controversy
Holly Cairns picked the wrong day to return to her role as leader of the Social Democrats after maternity leave. The party had planned a one-day ‘think-in’ in Dublin and the party anticipated media attention on her return, allowing her to set out her and the party’s stall.
Unfortunately, there was a fly in the ointment. For the second time in two years, the party’s TD for Dublin Bay South, Eoin Hayes, became the story.
Last year, his shifting narrative on how he disposed of his shares in the US firm Palantir (which provided military technology to Israel) took the gloss of its big general election success and led to a nine-month suspension.
This time around, it was a story of how he dressed up as Barack Obama for a Halloween party in 2009 by using brown make-up to darken the colour of his skin. Cormac McQuinn has the details.
Blackface is a historical practice that is seen as racist and considered deeply offensive. It commonly refers to when a person, typically with white skin, paints their face darker to resemble a black person and dates back to a time when black people were mocked for the entertainment of white people promoting negative stereotypes.
Hayes has apologised. The party – and others – have pointed out that it occurred 16 years ago. Cairns said that if had occurred more recently, Hayes would no longer be a member of the Social Democrats.
The Ploughing Championships
Over the past two decades, the National Ploughing Championships has become a central feature of the autumn political calendar. In 2017, Michael D Higgins hinted for the first time he wanted a second term, a significant political moment.
In an interview with RTÉ’s Seán O’Rourke at the festival, he said: “I am going to give the job my full concentration and will make an announcement after the summer next year,” he said.
Seven years later, the three declared presidential candidates all visited the championships yesterday and indeed some of them will be there all week. Here’s what they had to say to the media during their canvasses.
Fine Gael leader Simon Harris also visited the site yesterday. His counterparts in Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin, Micheál Martin and Mary Lou McDonald, will visit the large site in Screggan, Co Offaly, on Thursday.
Bob Geldof pulls out of contest
And another celebrity has thrown in the towel before even getting into the ring. Hot on the heels of Conor McGregor’s announcement (in a very long tweet) and that of meteorologist Joanna Donnelly, the Boomtown Rats singer and TV producer has told Sky News this morning that London is where his home is. Cormac McQuinn has the details.
Two in the bag for Gareth Sheridan
Jack Horgan-Jones followed the proceedings of Tipperary County Council yesterday which backed entrepreneur Gareth Sheridan but only after a Fine Gael councillor rebelled against the whip.
Sheridan now has two local authorities and needs two more. Jack reports that he is targeting Carlow and Offaly. However, there could be as many as ten councils still in play so it’s likely that he will look at a few more.
There’s been a change in the past few weeks. Despite grumbling from Fianna Fáil councillors that they were left out of the party’s selection process – and the fact that no whip was imposed on them – they seem to be voting as if they were whipped and blocking candidates. That makes the path for Independents more difficult.
If Sheridan gets a third, it’s certain that a council somewhere will hold a special meeting to facilitate a nomination (which is not akin to an endorsement).
The route for the other two prominent aspirants, Maria Steen and Nick Delahanty, looks much more difficult. Wicklow and Galway County Councils both rejected any candidate yesterday.
Best Reads
Ronan McGreevy’s account of all the colour at the ploughing
Conor Pope explains the history of ‘blackface’
Jack Horgan-Jones’s analysis on what Gareth Sheridan’s second nomination means
Michael McDowell’s column on the moral emptiness of Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK.
Don’t mix sports and politics. Thankfully Fintan O’Toole has ignored that dictum in his opinion column comparing the seamless preparation for the Ryder Cup with the less-than-perfect approach to other pressing issues in Ireland.
Playbook
Dáil
14:00: Leaders’ Questions
14.34: Other Members’ Questions
15.13: Taoiseach’s Questions
15.58: Statements on National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030
18.23: Private Members’ Business (Sinn Féin): Motion re Special Education School Places
20.23: Topical Issues
21.23: Dáil adjourns
Committees
09.30: Disability Matters – Inclusive education for people with disability
12.30: Arts, Media, Communications – Launch of the Committee Report on its Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the revised General Scheme of the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill
12.30: Climate, Environment and Energy – Engagement with Climate Experts on the Carbon Budgets
15.30: European Affairs – Engagement with Coimisiún na Meán
Opening Statement by John Evans, Digital Services Commissioner, Coimisiún na Meán