Good morning. The three presidential candidates faced off in their first debate of the campaign last night. The reviews are in, and they’re not terribly flattering.
Our initial take last night is that Catherine Connolly will be happiest – she dominated the debate and was fluent and coherent. However, she spoke only to her base of left-wing voters and didn’t do anything to reach out to the new, middle-ground voters she will need to win the presidency.
Heather Humphreys had an OK night – hardly set the world alight, but didn’t drop any clangers either. Steady as she goes.
It was a tough debut on this stage for Jim Gavin – he seemed a bit anxious, and struggled sometimes in the face of questioning. Connolly is just much more comfortable in this format and medium. Still, Gavin did try to talk about the actual presidency.
READ MORE
- If you want a blow-by-blow account, Harry McGee was on the live story – here’s how it unfolded.
- Here’s four takeaways from the debate
- And you can listen to a podcast recorded immediately afterwards here.
Budget blues
A week from today Paschal Donohoe and Jack Chambers will unveil the Government’s first budget, a signal moment in the life of any administration.
The level of speculation and kite-flying has been unusually low this year, something that probably reflects the focus on the presidential election, but also the well-advertised determination of the Government – the leadership of it, anyway – to pull back the rate of spending increases and eliminate the repeated “one-off” giveaways of the last three years.
Reconciling the demands for ever-greater spending from the ever-larger system for providing public services with the need for budget discipline at a time of unprecedented threats to Ireland’s economic model – advertised daily to the Government by bodies such as the ESRI, the Central Bank and the fiscal council – will be the story of this budget, and the challenge for Donohoe and Chambers in the coming days. The time for final decisions is fast approaching.
This morning, Fiona Reddan looks back at the last ten years of budgets and how they affected your personal finances.
Gaza
Donald Trump hosted Binyamin Netanyahu at the White House last night and declared that the Middle East was on the verge of peace. On closer inspection, it seems that the Trump plan is more a set of broad objectives that other people will have to flesh out if the peace plan is to work. Still, the plan for the Gaza Riviera seems to have been shelved, though the head of an international body overseeing the administration of Gaza for an interim period will be ... president Donald Trump.
Gaza plan reports
- Trump agrees new Gaza peace plan with Israel
- Analysis: Gaza peace plan is far from a done deal
- Explainer: How will it work?
Cabinet
The Cabinet meets this morning for its first meeting in a fortnight – there was none last week because everyone was in New York at the UN – and there is a lengthy agenda. Cormac McQuinn has a preview here which includes news that Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien is to bring proposals which would see legislation to dump the passenger cap at Dublin Airport. It wouldn’t have happened with the Greens in government, that’s for sure.
Best reads
- Fintan O’Toole on Catherine Connolly’s Basil Fawlty moment about Germany
- On the presidential campaign trail, Sarah Burns went to Mayo to see if they’ve forgiven Jim Gavin
- Former Green Lord Mayor Hazel Chu writes about her breast cancer diagnosis and surgery
Playbook
As noted above, the Cabinet meets at Government Buildings this morning. After that, the Dáil meets at 2pm for Leaders’ Questions followed by the weekly row over the Order of Business.
There’s Government legislation on issuing environmental licences, transport questions and a nine minutes to midnight adjournment.
At the Seanad there are statements on school transport and on auto-enrolment for pensions. Exciting stuff.
It’s a busy day at the committees, with a variety of delegations arriving in Leinster House. Among the issues to be discussed are the impact of artificial intelligence on older people, the status of the Irish language in third-level colleges and sprat fishing. All the details are available here.
