It was like the old RTÉ days for Independent Ireland MEP Ciaran Mullooly this week, who emerged from a European Parliament committee to break a “good news” story to his social media followers about the signing of an EU-India trade deal.
“The scale of this is huge. India is one of the countries in the world with the largest use of milk,” said the former Midlands correspondent in a video message, adding that it would benefit Irish farming and the wider economy as there was business to be done in the areas of cheese and dairy formula milk product.
“We’re not talking thousands and millions here; we’re talking billions if we can pull this off. That’s why it’s on a different scale to Mercosur and that’s why I warmly welcome it and that’s why I will support it alongside colleagues here in the European Parliament.”
Described by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen as “the mother of all deals”, the accord should cut tariffs on 96.6 per cent of EU goods exports to India. It’s wise to read the small print: among the products excluded from relief were soya, beef, sugar and – you’ve guessed it – dairy.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi (centre) welcomes European Council president Antonio Costa (left) and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen before their meeting in New Delhi. Photograph: Manish Swarup/AP
Representative body Dairy Industry Ireland was – understandably enough – “disappointed” the deal would not yield improved access to India for the sector and that high tariffs would remain on cheese and dairy-based exports.
Irish support for the India deal raised some eyebrows in Brussels, with the State jumping back on the pro-trade bandwagon just days after voting against the Mercosur pact. That move was driven by pressure from beef farmers and some politicians (Mullooly included) about the possible arrival of cheaper, lower quality meat from South America. Mercosur has, however, been applauded as a “landmark” deal by the European Dairy Association.
Mullooly’s breaking news update has since been deleted from his account on social media network X.
The MEP on Friday said his understanding is that the EU-India accord will be good news for milk formula producers as India is a multibillion market for such products.
He said he removed the clip from X due to the unpleasant nature of comments appearing under it but it remained on his Facebook page.
Big job (and salary) on offer for next justice chief
Change is coming at Department of Justice HQ on Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green with Oonagh McPhillips, the first woman to serve as its secretary general, set to retire in the spring.
Her successor will take on a job with a salary of €261,762 and a seven-year term, according to an advert on Public Jobs. They will have to “lead a department with 4,600 people and a budget of some €2.7 billion” and set “the strategic direction for the wider justice sector which comprises more than 27,000 people with an operating budget of over €6 billion”.
The incoming secretary general at the Department of Justice will take on the job for a seven-year term. Photograph: Getty Images
“There is increasing ethnic diversity, and a vibrant LGBT+ network,” it says of the department.
Producing “high quality and timely legislation to support and drive change” is listed as a key responsibility, and there are many strategies to be developed, with this year’s priorities crossing cyber security, family justice, migration, retail crime and community safety.
McPhillips joined the Civil Service in 1985 at what was then the lowest entry-level grade: temporary clerical trainee. She spent most of her career in justice, bar stints as a civilian manager in An Garda Síochána and a speech writer in Áras an Uachtaráin. She was appointed secretary general in 2020.
Sinéad McPhillips (left) and Oonagh McPhillips, secretaries general of the Departments of Agriculture and Justice respectively
“I have been at every level so I know what it’s like to be an executive officer, or a higher executive officer who can’t get promoted,” she said previously.
Her departure will bring an end to a sister-sister tandem at the top of the Civil Service, with Sinéad McPhillips last year appointed as secretary general of the Department of Agriculture.
High-flying Hamnet opens door to ‘difficult conversations’
It has been hard to escape the buzz surrounding Hamnet, Chloe Zhao’s screen adaptation Maggie O’Farrell’s novel about the relationship between William and Agnes Shakespeare following the death of their son.
The film this week received 11 Bafta Award nominations including best actress for Co Kerry’s Jessie Buckley and best supporting actor for Co Kildare’s Paul Mescal. It tasted success at the Golden Globes and also received eight Academy Award nominations.
Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal at the Golden Globes earlier this month in Beverly Hills, California. Photograph: Christopher Polk/2026GG/Penske Media via Getty Images
Some critics have complained that the film is little more than “grief porn”, but as Irish Times Film Correspondent Donald Clarke notes: “Well, only in the sense that Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves was poverty porn and Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver was lunatic porn…
“Grief is a fit subject, and it is here treated with such intense dignity that we can even forgive yet another airing of Max Richter’s sombre tune On the Nature of Daylight.”
Critics will be critics, but Hamnet this week received praise from Anam Cara, a charity supporting bereaved parents, for having “opened a door for people to have difficult conversations about the death of children in Ireland”.
Hamnet: Jessie Buckley as Agnes and Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare. Photograph: ©2025 Focus Features LLC/All Rights Reserved
“Hamnet portrays grief not as something neat or easily resolved, but as something that lives in the body and in everyday life,” said its chief executive Michelle Reynolds.
“As a society, we often don’t know how to respond to child loss. Hamnet reminds us how important it is to speak a child’s name, to acknowledge their life, and to create space where parents can express their grief.”
Minister lobbied by group aiming to elevate Irish ‘wedding standards’
A browse through the returns filed on the State’s Lobbying Register shows it really does take all sorts to make a world. It lists the people, companies, NGOs, industry bodies and consultancy firms who have sought to get all manner of points across to public office holders.
Among those recently filing returns were former TD Lucinda Creighton’s Vulcan Consulting, which sought to engage with Oireachtas members on behalf of Horse Racing Ireland regarding the industry’s economic importance; the Irish Solar Energy Association, which was seeking a legislative framework favourable to the deployment of solar panels in Ireland; and Chinese technology firm Huawei Ireland, which sought to update Ministers on its Irish operations.
Another was from the Irish Wedding Professionals Association, “a non-profit community and resource hub created for Irish wedding industry vendors”, which late last year wrote to Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke seeking a meeting.
Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke. Photo: Sam Boal/Collins Photos
The intention, it said, was to seek formal recognition as the organisation “representing Ireland’s top wedding professionals with a vision of elevating the wedding standards in Ireland” and, move over Lake Como, to position the country “as a leading destination for weddings globally”.
A room is set up for a wedding celebration at the Kingsley hotel in Cork
It also hoped to receive funds to support professional training with a view to elevating standards and to cover having a presence at various “luxury” trade shows.
“A response was received with a note to say he was not available to meet at this time,” the association’s return states.