Thread by @ciananbrennan

#PSC debate kicking off in the Dail, @ReginaDo up first oireachtas.ie/en/oireachtas-…

@ReginaDo .@willieodeaLIVE calling strongly for sight of the Government's "incredibly strong" legal advice regarding @welfare_ie's response to the DPC report #PSC Would be very interesting indeed to see that advice

@ReginaDo @willieodeaLIVE @welfare_ie The department's response "creates the impression that if a company in future is ruled against it can enlist the aid of the government and can get that decision overturned" - O'Dea #PSC

@ReginaDo @willieodeaLIVE @welfare_ie Lots of TDs having their say. Perhaps unsurprisingly support for the #PSC is thin on the ground. @bridsmithTD, @johnbradysf, @catherinegalway. "Why are you doing it? You were warned this doesn’t comply with the law. Why do insist that you are right and she is wrong?" says Smith

@ReginaDo @willieodeaLIVE @welfare_ie @bridsmithTD @johnbradysf @catherinegalway Connolly says that the DPC's report simply sets in stone concerns she and others had been outlining for years. Describes @welfare_ie's 470 page unpaginated response to interim DPC report as "contemptuous" #PSC

@ReginaDo @willieodeaLIVE @welfare_ie @bridsmithTD @johnbradysf @catherinegalway .@MHealyRae has his say. Says data protection in an Irish context is "the elephant in the room, the monster that has gotten out of control" #PSC

.@CathMurphyTD raises the fact the DPC said it could be argued the #PSC is an impediment to accessing services, not an enabler. Describes it as de facto ID card. "If we're going to have one, let's have a debate about it. The reality is there's no legal underpinning for this."

@CathMurphyTD Fireworks! O'Dea again calls for "at least an analysis" of the legal advice. Doherty says the response given to DPC is adequate. O'Dea calls out that the Minister is misleading the hosue. Doherty snaps "withdraw that remark deputy" #PSC

"I really believe in this. I'm happy to defend a policy introduced by your party in 1998 and 2005. I won't stand here to have you calling me lies!" #PSC

"You won't intimidate me deputy, and don't talk down to me either," says O'Dea. Reiterates claim that misleading has been going on. #PSC

Doherty says she can't say why the DPC refused to meet her department. Denies that means open conflict is the order of the day #PSC "I have strong legal advice to say we have a legislative basis for doing what we have done," the Minister says

Doherty says she can't say why Shane Ross pulled back on the requirement for a #PSC to have a driving licence. This is key given both DEASP and Transport are both known to have consulted the Attorney General, with widely differing results

"I don't know if Shane Ross got legal advice, and I don't know if Dept Foreign Affairs got legal advice," the Minister says. #PSC

Minister says she has no idea if medical card is still to be replaced by #PSC, says she first read about it the other day in the newspaper. @SeanMJourno the long-awaited hard copy of @thejournal_ie finally makes its debut thejournal.ie/medical-card-p…

@SeanMJourno @thejournal_ie The Minister says she is appealing all eight findings of the DPC's report, which is interesting given one of them was in her favour #PSC

@SeanMJourno @thejournal_ie .@catherinegalway: "I’ve listened to you today, and I don’t see that you’ve taken on board any of the very serious concerns outlined in this report. Surely at this stage you’d have some sense yourself, separate from your dept, of what is going on?” #PSC

@SeanMJourno @thejournal_ie @catherinegalway Minister says that DFA hasn't changed its passport policy at all. "There was always a mechanism to get a passport without a #PSC," she says. This is being very bendy with the truth to be honest

@SeanMJourno @thejournal_ie @catherinegalway First-time passport applicants had no choice but to have a #PSC. That is indisputable. 70,000 of them per year. That changed last week. Unofficially, it changed the moment the report was delivered to Government on August 15th

@SeanMJourno @thejournal_ie @catherinegalway To be fair to the Minister, she is well able for the spotlight, she's been under incessant attack for 80 minutes now, but sticks to her mantra without missing a beat #PSC

Doherty signs off the debate with: "I fully respect the DPC, and we have sought at all stages to fully cooperate with this investigation. I note that the State is expected to just accept the rulings..." #PSC

Doherty: "I think it's important to note, that this Oireachtas provided that State bodies have the absolute right to appeal such decisions, and that it would be extraordinary for the State to deny itself those rights..." #PSC

Doherty: "... particularly where we have such strong legal advice to apply the policy as set out in 1998." #PSC

And that's your lot. If that legal advice sees the light of day it will set the cat among the pigeons. Not irrelevant that Willie O'Dea is the one pushing for it, given FF's importance to the minority government #PSC

Meanwhile... roll on the @DPCIreland before PAC tomorrow morning from 9am! #PSC