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Leaders’ Questions is kicking of at noon where there will be questions from Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, Labour and Independents 4 Change. It’s just under a week until the next Budget, so it’s anticipated there could be mention of that today.
We’ll be keeping an eye on all things happening over at Leinster House this afternoon. Join us…
Michael McGrath of Fianna Fáil starts the questions off with some wonderings about Brexit – just as Theresa May talks to her Conservative Party at its conference on the other side of the water.
Enda Kenny reiterates the series of decisions taken and shared following yesterday’s Cabinet meeting yesterday.
“This morning, I opened the exporters’ conference in the RDS,” the Taoiseach tells the chamber.
He is discussing the various ways he feels the government has helped entrepreneurs and small businesses.
He adds that the relevant departments “will continue to explore what options might be open in terms of financial supports and access to credit” for companies who are suffering because of the “decline in strength of the sterling”.
McGrath says that Brexit could be a doomsday scenario for some businesses in Ireland – mentions the mushroom industry which has been the first sector massively hit by the UK’s vote in the summer.
Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald: “Here we go again.”
She raises the report that garda whistleblowers were targeted in an orchestrated attack by senior members of the gardaí.
You can catch up with the latest here:
She said stories like these lower morale in the force and stop others from coming forward.
Your government have clearly failed in protecting whistleblowers.
We are here back to square one. Nothing has changed.
Is Minister for Justice and Garda Commissioner running for cover? asks McDonald.
Enda Kenny said confidentiality is key when allegations of this kind are made.
The minister will now look at the documents sent to her and she will do so quickly, says Kenny.
This will have to be dealt with by a competent person as the minister won’t be able to verify the allegations made one way or the other, says the Taoiseach.
He says it is utterly unacceptable for whistleblowers to be treated badly.
“We cannot shirk responsibility in that regard and we won’t shirk responsibility in that regard.”
Kenny says a sitting judge may be appointed to assess the information.
McDonald raising issue that minister has had correspondence from whistleblowers for some time.
She wants to know who is responsible for dealing with such matters.
“Can I ask you Taoiseach, who is in charge here?”
“Do you have confidence in the Commissioner?”
He says someone has to examine the documents and he expects that could be a member of the judiciary.
“I have absolute confidence in Garda Commissioner and Minister for Justice, I have no reason not to,” says the Taoiseach.
Clare Daly in on her feet now talking about one whistleblower her and Mick Wallace have raised in the Dáil over 19 times.
Four times one of the garda whistleblowers wrote to minister and told her about experience he was going through, says Daly.
She says there was not just an orchestrated plan to destroy a whistleblower, but to annihilate him.
If the Commissioner herself isn’t directly involved in that harassment [of whistleblowers] isn’t her authority discredited?
“Why in Gods name do you need another investigation?”
“It is time for the commissioner to go,” said Daly.
She said GSOC have said themselves they do not have the powers they need.
Independent Michael Harty is now asking the Taoiseach about supporting rural post offices.
He says not supporting them is allowing another national asset to disappear.
They can flourish if allowed to do so…
He said without these services rural towns will be left as shells of themselves.
Enda Kenny says the last government carried out a report under the remit of businessman Bobby Kerr.
He said government are in favour of post office system and to attempt to provide new business for them, but he said that is not always easy.
Minister Ring has set up a group to talk about the future of post offices. The group has met twice already and is involved with the postmasters unions.
Harty said there have been enough reports. “What we want now is action,” he said.
He claims in the next five years income to post offices will drop by 50%.
Post offices can survive… unless you act, and act decisively, waiting on reports is not going to save our post offices.
Kenny says the report has already been done. “It is not a case of not wanting to help here,” said the Taoiseach.
He said the group is looking at what future services the post office can support – banking, driving licences, or the paying of water charges (if they are reinstated, that is)
The Taoiseach is now taking questions on promised legislation, with Labour’s Brendan Howlin asking Kenny about the appointment of judges under the new system.
Kenny says the last judicial appointments made were expected to be the last group approved under the old system. He says he has no plans to bring more names before Cabinet for approval.
He is now being asked about promised legislation on Seanad reform.
If you want to tune in, you can do so here.
That’s it for today, join us back here tomorrow.
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IF ever there was a moment for enda kenny to answer the bloody quewstions he was asked (i.e. not committing an affront to our democratic processes) it was today. His performance today at leaders questions in relation to the whistleblowers was, to borrow a relevant term, ‘disgusting’.
It’s pretty obvious at this stage Kenny is kicking a lot of cans down the road courtesy of his Co conspirators Fianna Fail.
@FC, if Adams ever answered the question relating to the murders he was involved in,ill buy you a pint.
@The spokesman: what is that got to do with the taoiseach of this country irrelevant of what party he is from showing what he showed today in the dail as nothing more than pathetic. If nothing else rolling his eyes to heaven is disgraceful with what has emerged.
@ FC…. And you’re point is what exactly ??. The post is about kenny and his inability / refusal to answer a question without waffling on & on in hope that his cohorts will make enough of a distraction to take the heat off him.
@The spokesman: Now that the FF, FG, LP and Independents are in Coalition why of course it is all SF’s fault, the fe##ers have been in power for far too long. There is no one else to blame.
Keep the status quo, save the party at all costs. Don’t let the fe##ers find out what we have been up to. Say nothing. Answer inconvenient questions with convenient white lies.
@The spokesman: i must have missed the reference to adams in the article. can you point it out to me.
Rolling his eyes up to heaven when the taoiseach is being asked questions on the Garda whistleblowers and the stories that have emerged is not really the way a Taoiseach should behave in light of what has come out.
@LITTLEONE: f/g stroke kenny stoke o’sullivan no credibility ,,, not rocket science ,,
I see they’ve given themselves another week off. Probably so they can spend the raise they gave themselves
The mushroom sector? I suppose they’d been kept in the dark and didn’t know what to expect.
@Damocles: It’s a shame, I knew the owner of the place. He was a fungi. **gets coat**
Yes, but how likely is it that he will answer any of the questions?
Kenny will do nothing. To do anything would upset the status quo. If he upsets Norinn, what will Denis do for a security force.
“Enda Kenny grilled…….”
Carlsberg don’t do headlines but if they did
Any questions put to him about the cases concerning Mary Boyle and Philip Cairns? I doubt the Journal will be informing us if such a question was posed.
Discussi g rural post offices?? I bet the Healy-Rae’s has one of them too
@Daithi De Roiste: It’s a shame to think that Kenny talks about supports for companies affected by the fall in value of sterling, yet he is not prepared to support our post offices which turn a good profit for this country.
Jesus, Mary Lou must love the sound of her own voice.
@Old Gordon: excellent contribution gordon, you must be very pleased with it
The UK is now having to face up to some of the realities of what they voted for and try to get as good a deal as possible from the EU. What they seem to forget is that they will need a lot of goodwill from the other EU member states if they are to succeed, but measures like this are too reminiscent of how the Nazis started discriminating against Jews and other “undesirables”. What next? Perhaps a blanket ban on certain groups being employed in whole sectors?
With a whole spate of national elections coming soon in the EU, not being seen to be too nice to the Brits or bending over backwards to accommodate their often apparently unreasonable demands, it will become de rigeur for European politicians to tell the Brits to take, at best, a Norway-style arrangement or else shag off with themselves.
@David Quim: You have it wrong there my friend, it won’t be a Norway or Swiss deal. It will be a UK deal, just you wait and see. The Germans are worried about the possible loss of their car exports to the UK. While the French buy a lot of Britains argi, especially UK lamb at the moment because it is cheaper.
How bout the truth about Mary Boyle and Philip Cairns …
have your say