Irish Water and City of Culture on new Dáil agenda

Controversies over the use of public money and the long lead-in to May’s crunch local and European elections look set to dominate the new Dáil term.

After a near month-long Christmas break, TDs kick off the new session with a probe by the environment committee into Irish Water’s spend of €50m on outside consultants, and this will be followed by an investigation by the Public Accounts Committee into the chaos surrounding the launch of Limerick’s City of Culture year.

With the elections approaching in May, the Dáil will spend much of the next few weeks on details of the Local Government Bill, which brings in major changes ahead of the summer polls.