agenda.ie a guide to what's going on in Leinster House

NOT WASTING any time in getting past the Fiscal Compact, the Dáil hits the ground with both of the other EU-themed bills, while the Seanad and committees take care of other business.

9:30am – Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (sub-committee) – Richard Bruton gets the ball rolling in Roon 3, guiding members through committee stage of his proposed credit guarantee scheme for small businesses.

10:00am – Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (sub-committee) – Due to time pressures two weeks Pat Rabbitte never got a chance to seek extra Budget funding for his department. He pops into Room 1 to seal the deal.

10:30am – Leaders’ Questions – In the first sittings since the week-long sojourn for the Fiscal Compact, Enda Kenny steps up for the main pitches of the day from Micheal Martin, Gerry Adams and the technical group.

10:30am – Environment, Transport, Culture and the Gaeltacht – Phil Hogan (yes, he’s still alive!) wanders into room 4 to brief members on next week’s meeting of the European Environment Council, the grouping of the climate ministers of each of the member states.

10:51am – Order of Business – TDs get 30 minutes to sign off on their own agenda…

11:21am – Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Bill 2011 [Seanad] (second stage resumed) – …before the last 40 minutes or so of debate on the legislation enforcing gender quotas.

12:05pm – European Council Statements – Today’s the first full day of Dáil sittings not only since the Fiscal Compact, but also since the last ad hoc meeting of the European Council to discuss the new ‘growth agenda’. Here there’ll be 85 minutes of discussion on that, before a gap for lunch.

2:30pm – Questions (Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht) – Jimmy Deenihan gets things going after the break; he’ll take parliamentary questions on the planned merger of the National Library with both the National Archives and the manuscripts collection, a similarly planned merger of the National Galleries, and the 20-year strategy for the Irish language.

2:30pm – Order of Business – The Seanad’s back in business today – and kicks off, as it always does, with 75 minutes of free-for-all discussion.

3:30pm – Justice, Equality and Defence – Six EU legal proposals get brought up, on matters as diverse as the rights of scattered third-country families to reunite across EU borders, and the levels of toxins tolerable in food.

3:45pm – Topical Issues – Four newsworthy items are discussed for 12 minutes apiece, with ministers on hand to respond.

3:45pm – Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) 2012 (second stage resumed) – The main provision of this Bill is to facilitate the merger of Limerick city and county councils, but there’s a few other bits in there too. There’ll be a second stage vote at the end of this two-hour bill.

4:33pm – European Communities (Amendment) Bill 2012 – The biggest item of the day. In order to facilitate the establishment of the European Stability Mechanism, the new permanent bailout fund, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union must be amended so that the treaty’s ‘no bailout’ clause does not apply. This, it appears, will be the only three hours of debate that the Dáil will get on the bill, with amendments to be discussed at a later time.

5:45pm – Private Members’ Business [Fianna Fáil] – NAMA and Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Transparency Bill 2012 – Senator Mark Daly’s legislation is short, and simple, but very profound: the two post-bust institutions which between them hold hundreds of billions of Irish euro at stake would, under this, be required to publish the details of all of their loan and property sales online. It’s billed as a transparency measure, but could be considered to end up manipulating the process and ward some people off. An interesting one to see if the government approve.

7:30pm – Private Members’ Business [Technical Group] – Motion re buildings standards – In the Dáil, meanwhile, is a motion from Clare Daly and Mick Wallace slamming the political role in planning and buildings standards, which (aside from having the Mahon results) has resulted in a string of poor-quality developments like Priory Hall.

The lengthy motion, in short, condemns a draft legislative response – but also, crucially, tells the government it must “accept responsibility for necessary remedial works to make buildings safe and fit for purpose as part of an emergency programme of necessary public works, and where possible to subsequently pursue the responsible developers and builders to recoup the cost for the State.” Debate wraps up at 9pm and kicks off again tomorrow.

All of the day’s business can be viewed on our streams:

• Dáil: Web stream, Facebook stream
• Seanad: Web stream, Facebook stream
• Committee Room 1: Web stream, Facebook stream
• Committee Room 2: Web stream, Facebook stream
• Committee Room 3: Web stream, Facebook stream
• Committee Room 4: Web stream, Facebook stream