{"id":440343,"date":"2026-05-09T13:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T13:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/440343\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T13:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T13:11:09","slug":"lesser-spotted-moments-of-unity-amid-fractious-dail-mood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/440343\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesser-spotted moments of unity amid fractious D\u00e1il mood"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is little harmony in the D\u00e1il these days.<\/p>\n

A furious opposition is repeatedly calling on the Government to immediately free up more money for households struggling to cope with rising prices, particularly energy costs.<\/p>\n

Those in Cabinet know that a decision on whether to extend the excise fuel cuts will have to be taken before the end of July.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, the ambition is to get to the summer recess and hope that the next significant cost-of-living package will be announced in October’s budget.<\/p>\n

Even within the coalition, there were jibes exchanged this week on the fraught issue of reducing student fees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fine Gael TD Meave O’Connell expressed disappointment that such a cut might not be in the offing after all.<\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il fumed and claimed it was a case of a “rookie” deputy not understanding how budgets are put together.<\/p>\n

All was publicly resolved by the close of business on Tuesday when Higher Education Minister James Lawless released a statement insisting that all options around student funding remain on the table.<\/p>\n

The latest spat was emblematic of ongoing tetchiness between the two big Government parties.<\/p>\n

But there was an unexpected outpouring of unity within Fianna F\u00e1il.<\/p>\n

Who would have thought that one of the most divisive issues of the 1970s could have built bridges between the party leader and one of his most rebellious TDs?<\/p>\n

Yet the idea of examining the lifting of restrictions on generating nuclear energy in this country<\/a>,<\/a> a cause which Cork East TD James O\u2019Connor is advocating with gusto, has got the nod of approval from the Taoiseach.<\/p>\n

\"Fianna
\nJames O’Connor is advocating the lifting of the ban on nuclear energy<\/p>\n

Mr O’Connor points out that many EU states have energy security and cheaper costs<\/a> for households because of nuclear power.<\/p>\n

The proposal was labelled as harebrained by Labour leader Ivana Bacik.<\/p>\n

Former Green Party TD Brian Leddin, who chaired the Oireachtas Environment Committee between 2020 and 2024, believes the idea is a distraction from more pressing tasks.<\/p>\n

These include reinforcing the national grid and building energy storage, along with training thousands of specialists to make onshore and offshore planning more efficient.<\/p>\n

He feels it is fanciful to think that anything could be built, even in a 15 to 20-year timeframe, and asked if James O\u2019Connor would be comfortable with a nuclear facility in his own constituency?<\/p>\n

To that question, the Fianna F\u00e1il TD offered the following response: “I think it would be hypocritical to advocate for a policy only to revert to nimbyism.<\/p>\n

“This is a decision that belongs solely to engineering experts, and a site should be selected solely on its merits.”<\/p>\n

On a separate topic, another politician unafraid to embrace an unpopular stance, took aim at this country\u2019s former colonial masters in the D\u00e1il.<\/p>\n

Culture Minister Patrick O\u2019Donovan found himself in agreement with Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Aengus \u00d3 Snodaigh – yes this did happen – on the repatriation of heritage objects taken as part of “colonial plunder”.<\/p>\n

“If there are materials in other museums, particularly in countries that were formerly colonial powerhouses, including the one that occupied this State, in the modern world of 2026 there is a compulsion on them to look into their hearts and recognise that this stuff was taken against the will of the people from whom it was taken and that it really does not belong where it is,” the minister told a sparsely attended D\u00e1il early on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

There was far more diplomacy in the air when British Ambassador Kara Owen was welcomed to Leinster House by Senator Victor Boyhan on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The ambassador was attending the formal launch of the British and Irish Society of Animal Science.<\/p>\n

This collaboration will promote research in areas such as climate action, sustainable food, rural prosperity and global competitiveness.<\/p>\n

The event was also attended by former senator Ian Marshall, of Queen’s University Belfast.<\/p>\n

It was another of those lesser-spotted moments of unity amid the increasingly fractious atmosphere in Leinster House.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is little harmony in the D\u00e1il these days. A furious opposition is repeatedly calling on the Government…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-440343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}