EU leaders, the British Prime Minister and heads of other European countries not in the EU are all expected to visit Ireland next year as part of Ireland's 6-month presidency of the European Union.
Ireland takes over the presidency on 1 July.
The leaders, along with President of the European Commission Ursula Von Der Leyen will visit for an informal meeting of the European Council and a European Political Community Summit.
The EPSC was set up after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 as a forum for all countries in Europe.
The Cabinet will hear today from Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris that arrangements are already been made to host the two events in the one week, as well as 22 informal meetings of EU ministers throughout the 6-month period that ends on 31 December.
Simon Harris will brief ministers on the plans as well as the possibility that Ireland will host the first ever European Housing Summit during the presidency term.
The housing summit was mooted by Ursula Von Der Leyen in her state of the Union speech last month.
Ministers will hear a public consultation process will be launched to help determine Ireland priorities for the presidency with engagement to take place with the public, trade unions, business, community and civil society sectors.
'Jennies Law'
Separately, Minister for Justice Jim O’ Callaghan will seek Cabinet approval for the Criminal Law Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill, which will replace the words "child pornography" with the words "child sexual abuse material" in Irish law.
The change is to reflect the criminal nature of any sexual abuse or victimisation of children. The word pornography is a term that is generally used to describe sexual activity among adults that is mostly legal.
The bill also provides for the establishment of the Domestic Violence register.
The measure, to be known as 'Jennies Law’ in memory of murder victim Jennie Poole, will ensure the names of those convicted of domestic violence crimes are on a publicly accessible register.
Minister O’Callaghan will also tell Ministers of new child maintenance guidelines and a maintenance calculator. The guidelines will reflect the factors a court considers in making decisions on maintenance levels, such as parental income, the cost of raising the children, and how much parenting time each parent provides.
A new maintenance calculator will shortly be available to allow people get a general estimate of what level of maintenance they are entitled to.
Cabinet will also be told by Minister for Housing James Browne that data from local authorities on the compulsory purchase of vacant and derelict properties last year and in 2023 has been collated.
It shows the number of such properties identified by each local authority, and the number being acquired by CPO, which varies from region to region.He will say the intention is to publish this data on an annual basis as part of the effort to bring such properties back into use as homes.
Storm Éowyn response
Minister Browne will also bring forward the review of the response to Storm Éowyn carried out by the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management to cabinet.
It focuses on the provision of humanitarian assistance, infrastructure resilience, and development of rapidly activated Community Support Centres at local authority level.
A plan to cope with such weather events, based on the review, will be published in the coming days.
Ministers will also be told by Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers of a review of state spending rules.
They have not been reviewed for 17 years.
The aim of the review is to improve budgetary discipline, as well as clarity and accountability for decisions.
