The Irish government currently gives funding to political parties that run 'people of diversity' as candidates, while FF's 2024 local election manifesto calls for mandatory 'gender targets' in local government boards.

Gript's Ben Scallan 🇮🇪 asks Micheál Martin about this.

Taoiseach Simon Harris says it's wrong to think of 'international obligations' as a set of received rules, saying that instead 'We're part of the international community - we're part of the countries that make the rules.'

Question by Ben Scallan 🇮🇪.

The really interesting figure, and the one we've never been able to get, is how much public money flows into the Irish media when you include ad buys from publicly funded NGOs, semi-states, entities like the HSE, etc.

Latest from the campaign trail: A candidate who once bragged about tearing down political posters belonging to his opponents is very upset that his own posters have been vandalised, writes JOHN MCGUIRK:

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“I’m still traumatised in a real way 30 years later”: Labour Party education spokesman Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has said the Leaving Cert should be “abolished” and “changed completely”.

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Today Roderic O’Gorman said that Independent TD Carol Nolan is not “owed an apology” for having her migration warnings dismissed in 2022. Nolan was quick to respond strongly:

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In 2022 Darragh O'Brien accused Carol Nolan of undermining 'social cohesion' because she warned that his government's 'no cap' asylum policy would lead to crisis.

Asked if Nolan now deserved an apology, Roderic O'Gorman said: 'I certainly don't think she's owed an apology, no.'

FLASHBACK: A Fianna Fáil Senator previously said there's 'no question' but that 16-year-olds would vote for the government due to their climate policies, while a Sinn Féin TD said 16s should vote as they're 'more engaged' with issues like climate change and Black Lives Matter.

“We live in a bizarro nanny state that infantalises adults and adultifies infants,” says Ben Scallan 🇮🇪, as the government moves to raise the smoking age to 21:

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“Comrades, in less than a month, we will have the opportunity to continue to mould the European project in our image,” she said.

Also praised James Connolly for being, in her words, an 'unashamed ideologue.'

Free speech and freedom of the press are “under threat” from the far-right, Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik has said, warning that such elements would “use the police to suppress, not protect.”

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RTÉ political correspondent Micheal Lehane says immigration is 'unquestionably' the top issue coming up on the doors for politicians.

There is a rich irony in the fact all of IPO/Grand Canal tents just so happen to say 'Trespass'. There's a kind of poetry to the whole thing.

Lisbon paving versus Dublin paving. Dublin City Council going all out on the public realm as usual.