Weekly Bulletin – What you need to know…

Economy Minister Conor Murphy to contest Irish Seanad election
Sinn Féin Economy Minister Conor Murphy announced on Monday (30 December) that he will run for election to Seanad Éireann (Senate of Ireland). The Seanad is the upper house of the Irish parliament, serving similar function to the House of Lords in the UK. Mr Murphy will be contesting one of the 43 seats elected from vocational panels, voted on by county and city councillors along with incoming TDs and outgoing members of the previous Seanad. The Irish Times has reported that Murphy is “regarded as a shoo-in”, and whilst in terms of political reaction DUP MLA Diane Forsythe has been critical of Minister Murphy for for failing to use a £2m allocation to implement a support scheme for childcare providers whilst “chasing a divisive border poll”.
What Next: The Economy Minister is set to continue in his ministerial post and will resign if elected. Commentators have observed that should Mr Murphy be elected to the Seanad, it will be a “large blow” to Sinn Féin’s Executive and Assembly operation.

NI medicine regulation returns to UK under Windsor Framework
As of Wednesday (1 January), responsibility for the regulation of medicines in NI returned to UK authorities in accordance with the Windsor Framework, BBC News NI reports. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) will now approve and license human medicines on a UK-wide basis. Under an earlier Brexit deal, the EU retained responsibility for regulating medicines in Northern Ireland but it later conceded that it was practically and commercially unworkable. UK-licensed medicines being sold in Northern Ireland must now carry a “UK only” label, similar to labelling on GB-standard food products introduced in 2023.
What Next: More elements of the Windsor Framework are expected to be implemented in 2025, including new customs processes for parcels and freight due sometime after March, and a pet travel scheme to be introduced in June.

Retail footfall in NI declines by 5.8% in December
Footfall in high streets and shopping centres across NI declined by 5.8% in December, according to the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium. The Belfast Telegraph reports that Belfast suffered an even steeper drop of 7.2%, ranking tenth out of eleven UK cities, with sever traffic congestion having potentially deterred shoppers. Across 2024, footfall in NI shops was down 2.2% on 2023. Neil Johnston, director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium, described performance in the final three months of the year, the so-called “golden quarter”, as “drab” and “feeble”. Mr Johnston also said: “The structural, economic, and regulatory changes affecting retail show few signs of abating.”
What Next: Glyn Roberts, chief executive of Retail NI, told the News Letter that while the figures are concerning, they are not yet cause for alarm as we are still awaiting overall sales data. However, he said retailers are facing a cliff-edge in April, when higher National Insurance, higher rates and higher Living Wage costs all to come in to effect at the same time.

Stakeholder Watch

DAERA: ““Ensuring the process of how we transition to a lower carbon society is fair & just is key to making it work for everyone. This consultation offers the opportunity to have your say on creation of a Just Transition Commission. Closes 17 Jan”. Consultation link here.

Alliance Party: “2025 must be the year the local institutions finally see reform and we remove the possibility of ransom politics, Alliance Leader @naomi_long has said”.

Sinn Féin : “I’m delighted to announce that I’ll be standing in the upcoming Seanad Éireann elections. This is an exciting time full of possibilities for our island. As a Senator, I’d work to improve lives across the island and achieve a referendum on Irish Unity- @conormurphysf”.

Secretary of State for NI Hilary Benn MP : “Today (1 Jan) marks the start of new arrangements under the Windsor Framework which provide a welcome and durable basis for medicine supplies in Northern Ireland” 1/3.
“The original Northern Ireland Protocol risked discontinuation of medicines coming from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. This would not have been sustainable” 2/3.“Instead, from today (1 Jan), it will be for the @MHRAgovuk to approve all drugs for the whole UK market, enabling medicines to be supplied within the UK supply chains, with a single license and a single set of packaging for the whole UK” 3/3.

DUP : “Robinson- we call a spade a spade- @GRobinsonDUP”. [Quote taken from the DUP leader’s New Year message in which Gavin Robinson MP speaks about the “challenges and opportunities in 2025 to help make Northern Ireland work for everyone who lives here”.

Other stories

Energy Strategy e-bulletin 28 published
On Friday (20 December) the Department for the Economy published the twenty eighth edition of the Energy Strategy e-bulletin, which aims to keep stakeholders informed about progress on the new Energy Strategy for Northern Ireland. The e-bulletin covers: the design plan for the roll-out of smart electricity meters (consultation closing date extended to 16 January 2025); the Low Carbon Heat Consultation (consultation closing date extended to 10 January 2025); the Smart Energy Conference and Electricity Association of Ireland Conference; an Energy Management Team update and the Save energy, Save money campaign launch.

Reappointment of Board Members to the Northern Ireland Fishery Harbour Authority
On 23 December, Minister of DAERA, Andrew Muir, announced the reappointment of Dr Lynn Gilmore, Mr David Knott and Mr Harry Wick to the Northern Ireland Fishery Harbour Authority. All three of the members were first appointed on 1 January 2021 and will continue in these roles until 31 December 2026.

Councillor Darryl Wilson leaves Ulster Unionist Party
Causeway Coast and Glens councillor Darryl Wilson announced on Tuesday (31 December) that he has left the UUP. He will continue to serve as an independent councillor for the Ballymoney area. Mr Wilson was at the centre of a row within the UUP over the co-option of a councillor to the NI Assembly after Robin Swann was elected as an MP, which culminated in Doug Beattie MLA resigning as party leader.

Alliance MP calls for ending violence against women and girls to be a top priority for the UK Government
Alliance MP Sorcha Eastwood has urged the UK Government to strengthen efforts to end violence against women and girls, especially concerning online behaviour, ahead of a House of Commons debate next week (9 January). Ms Eastwood said “the government must now urgently address the issue of violence against women and girls on a UK-wide basis, particularly given that social media regulation is a matter reserved to Westminster.”

Independent Review of Progress on Implementation of The Racial Equality Strategy 2015-2025 published
On 23 December an independent report reviewing the implementation of the current Racial Equality Strategy 2015-2025, commissioned by the Executive Office and produced by Sabir Zazai OBE and Jonathan Ellis was published. The report finds that the aims of the strategy have been “undermined by the lack of: an action plan; involvement of people with lived experience; and a process for ethnic monitoring; and could have been enhanced by more attention to governance”. The report recommends a greater uptake and awareness of the strategy, across “Government Departments and local communities” to ensure its delivery and implementation. Additional recommendations include “a rights-based approach” for “all new arrivals”, to “revive the Strategic Migration Partnership and agree a Refugee Integration Strategy”.

Southern Health & Social Care Trust CEO resigns
On Thursday (2 January), Southern Health & Social Care Trust Chief Executive Dr Maria O’Kane resigned from her role with immediate effect. Last October, Dr O’Kane said the Southern Trust was under “tremendous financial pressure”. SDLP opposition health spokesperson Colin McGrath MLA has called for ministerial intervention, telling the Belfast Telegraph: “This lack of stability during a period of immense strain on our health service is concerning.”

Across the border

Nominations to Seanad announced
On Tuesday (31 December), the final list of candidates for election to Seanad Éireann was confirmed, as parties and independents put forward their nominations. The Seanad has 60 members; 43 are elected to vocational panels, 6 are elected by university graduates, and the final 11 are appointed directly by the Taoiseach. There are five vocational panels: Agricultural, Labour, Industrial and Commercial, Cultural and Educational, and Administrative. Nominations can come from members of parliament or from registered nominating organisations, while votes are cast by incoming TDs, outgoing Senators, and local councillors. The Journal writes that notable nominees include outgoing Green party junior Minister for Nature Malcolm Noonan, Independent Senator Eileen Flynn, the first-ever Traveller to become a member of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Irish parliament), and Northern Ireland Economy Minister Conor Murphy MLA. This election will be the last time that the university Senators will be elected in two “constituencies”, University of Dublin (Trinity College) and National University of Ireland. These constituencies are set to be merged, and the franchise extended to graduates of other universities, following a Supreme Court ruling which found the current arrangements unconstitutional. The 11 Taoiseach nominees will be negotiated as part of ongoing government formation talks. Voting in the Seanad elections will open on 15 January, via postal vote, and ballots will be counted on 30 January.

House prices in the Republic rise 9% in 2024
House prices nationally rose by an average of 9% during 2024, according to the latest house price report by Daft.ie. The average price for a home now stands at €332,109 (£275,456). Prices rose for the fourth consecutive quarter in Dublin, where the increase of 9% during 2024 matched the national average and marked the highest rate of inflation seen in the city since late 2017. Speaking to RTÉ News, Ronan Lyons, economist at Trinity College Dublin and author of the report, said “If the goal of policymakers is to ensure stable housing prices, then, this has been the least successful year for policymakers since 2017.” Mr Lyons noted that the latest figures showed a lack of supply of second hand homes, with just 10,500 on the market as of 1 December, the lowest ever recorded in a series extending back to 2007. He also said “Aside from tinkering with the fixed rate rules and regulations – the underlying solution is to get more homes built.”

Electric car sales fall by 23.6% as consumer confidence collapses
Electric car sales fell sharply, while the purchase of used imports soared, according to full-year figures for 2024 released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry. Total car registrations in Ireland last year stood at 121,195, down 1% on last year. 17,459 of these were electric cars, compared to 22,852 in 2023. Speaking to the Irish Examiner, industry figures said that consumer confidence in EVs had collapsed in recent times due to negative commentary around electric cars and they urged the Government to take “decisive action” to get it back on track.

What we’re reading

Here’s a new year’s resolution for Stormont: be less popular.
Writing in the Irish News, David McCann casts 2025 as being, “for the first time in a decade”, a year of “political stability” and free from the “crashing down” of Northern Ireland’s institutions. McCann asks whether MLAs will “play it safe”, or whether they will make “unpopular decisions that may cause short-term political problems” but to the benefit of the long-term goal. McCann argues that politicians should “be ready to court unpopularity” in order to address these difficult policy questions and achieve “policy wins” using the recent example of pressure on the Infrastructure Minister Infrastructure, John O’Dowd, surrounding congestion issues in Belfast to illustrate his point. McCann states that for “big policy change”, politicians must be willing to accept the “trade-offs” of making such decisions, noting that real change is seldom achieved without unpopularity. He argues that a long-term approach should be applied to address problems in areas from “health to education to infrastructure”. McCann concludes by stating these next two years, “before entering another cycle of elections”, as a time when “motions become a bad dream and plans for reform become the norm”.