Politics watch: Browne under fire over 'housing tsar' plan
Here, we have a look at the topics likely to dominate political discourse in the week to come.
Browne under fire over 'housing tsar' plan
Housing is the big item on the agenda this week, with the Government and Minister for Housing James Browne under fire over the plan to appoint a 'housing tsar'.
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The collapse of plans to appoint Nama chief Brendan McDonagh as the Government's new housing tsar has led to tension within the Coalition, while the Opposition has been highly critical of Mr Browne and the plan in the Dáil today.
The Minister remains insistent that the housing tsar plan will go ahead.
In the Dáil on Wednesday, Labour called on Mr Browne to appear to take questions on the matter.
People Before Profit TD Ruth Coppinger accused him of hiding from the issue.
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"We don't need a housing tsar to tell us that there's public land that could be developed, you don't need a housing tsar to allocate money for that. Also the Housing Minister, who has become practically invisible, there are search parties at this stage looking for him. I don't think anybody knows who he is."
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said it is still unclear what will happen to the €430,000 salary earmarked for Mr McDonagh, who is no longer taking up the role.
Ms McDonald said: "You of course drafted the legislation making it clear that all Nama executives will go to the resolution unit in the NTMA [National Treasury Management Agency] and that therefore all of them will retain their pay and conditions.
"This must include Mr McDonagh, so the labyrinth of contradiction prompts people to ask what the hell is going on here, people catch the stink of something rotten."
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Mr Browne said he expects whoever becomes the housing tsar will declare their property interests before taking up the role.
Mr McDonagh withdrew his name from consideration to become the new chief executive of the Housing Activation Office last week, following controversy over his appointment.
The Ditch reported a four bedroom house he jointly owns was advertised on a short term letting sight for over €10,000 a week.
Mr Browne said he expects the person who eventually takes up the role to be transparent.
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"I expect anybody who will be offered the role will be forthright in their situation. This is not an overseeing body, it's actually boots on the ground, that's very much where my focus will be.
"And when I do identify that person, in agreement with the leader, that will be somebody who can activate sites on the ground because that is so important."
Labour TD Conor Sheehan said Mr Browne should be paying more attention to recommendations set out in the Housing Commission's latest report.
"I can't understand, for the life of me, why the Government won't take this recommendation on in full instead of introducing this relatively toothless, halfway measure which will amount to little more than a week on, week off for the Housing Minsiter."
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Meanwhile, Mr Browne has denied claims he has been "invisible" in his first 100 days in office.
Mr Browne said he has been meeting all the relevant bodies in his first few months, and his sole aim is to build more houses.
"I've had an extraordinary amount of meetings with stakeholders. I think I've done what you're supposed to do rather than going out and making loads of statements, and actually engaging with all the stakeholders.
"The first group I met were the homeless organisations, I've met the construction industry, association housing bodies, the county councils and everybody involved in this."
Taoiseach received positive messages on Trump meeting
The majority of messages Taoiseach Micheál Martin received received from the public about his White House meeting with US president Donald Trump were positive.
People were generally positive about Mr Martin's Oval Office meeting with Mr Trump in messages, seen by
BreakingNews.ie
following a Freedom of Information request.
The annual St Patrick's Day meeting took place on Wednesday, March 12th.
The Taoiseach's Office received many messages on the meeting on the day and the following week.
One message, sent hours after the meeting, read: "Just a very quick message to say congratulations on a very impressive performance in the Oval Office today. It can't have been an easy experience and I offer you my thanks on a job well done. No doubt there will be the usual criticisms in the Dáil and media but I for one send on my congratulations and thanks."
Another message told Mr Martin that he "played a blinder with that nut in the Oval Office".
MEP argues food security is central to European defence
Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Cowen has unveiled a new position paper outlining his vision for the future of European farming and the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post-2027.
In the paper, seen by
BreakingNews.ie
, Mr Cowen argues that in a new era of heightened security concerns, food security must be recognised as a core pillar of Europe's strategic defence, with agriculture "deserving a protected share of broader security spending".
Abroad
Ireland
Leo Varadkar meets Mike Pence after he receives aw...
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Joe Biden
has said in his first post-presidential interview that US president Donald Trump's pressure on Ukraine to give up territory to Russia amounted to 'modern-day appeasement'.
The historically fraught term used by the former US president refers to a failed effort to stop the Nazis from annexing land in Europe in the 1930s.
Friedrich Merz
plunged straight into international crises on his first full day as Germany's new chancellor on Wednesday, urging India and Pakistan to de-escalate their tensions, vowing support for Ukraine and announcing plans to travel to Kyiv soon.
Mr Merz and French president Emmanuel Macron — both firm believers in the European Union — used their first meeting since the German leader's appointment on Tuesday to present a united front in the face of US president Donald Trump's trade war, Russian aggression in Ukraine and other issues causing alarm in Europe.
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