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LABOUR TD MICHAEL McNamara voted against the government on his own bill to allow gardaí and the defence forces to hold formal negotiations on pay and conditions.
However, despite defying the whip, the Clare deputy remains in the Labour parliamentary party.
The bill, which would also have allowed gardaí to strike, was defeated by 69-24 votes. It was not supported by the Fine Gael-Labour coalition.
McNamara won’t be expelled from the parliamentary party, however, with Labour whip Emmet Stagg explaining: “It was his own bill and he can’t be expected to vote against it. You have to give members a bit of leeway in these circumstances.
It’s an unusual situation where the government doesn’t support one of its backbencher’s bills so you have to give a bit of leeway.
Meanwhile, a Labour spokesperson said the party would be “a bit more lenient in this instance”.
McNamara told Newstalk he’s still a member of Labour and supports the party.
The Clare TD said that, as he introduced the bill and had called on others to support it, he felt he’d “no alternative but to vote for my own bill”.
He said he’s “fully confident that everything in this bill will be introduced by 2020 at the latest” as Ireland has been found by the social rights committee to be in breach of the rights of gardaí.
McNamara said the party whip is “there for a reason”, but added: “There’s an obsession with reducing everything to ‘are they voting with the whip or are they voting against the whip’.”
I’m not gone anywhere, I stand fully square behind the Labour party.
He did admit to being “frustrated” his colleagues didn’t support the bill.
- additional reporting from Hugh O’Connell
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Not very “Labour” to vote against workers rights I would have thought.
Exactly. They should be made rename the party. Pity there aren’t more TD’s like McNamara!
Fair play to him for sticking to his principles and trying to bring us in line with international law and best practice. Shame the government didn’t support him.
But he can’t do that and the government can’t have a vote on that because I think it was the E.C.J. has ruled that it is illegal not to let the Gardaí the right to strike. So the E.U. has told this government they are breaking the E.U. law not to allow them to strike.
This is done for show for this useless government, the squeak of the worm not the turn as the E.U. will never allow that… lol.
If the guards did go on strike, how could we tell ?
The sale of doughnuts would collapse , that would be a likely indicator .
There wont be 15 standing over your water meter when you get home.
I’m nearly sure this is the first time a government has voted against a ruling that came from the European social charter. It just goes to show the lack of respect they have for army and gardai . At the very least they could begin to allow such groups to negotiate on pay and conditions themselves. Leave the strike issue for another time when more thought is put into it. It’s now the situation where gardai and army personnel are 2nd class citizens in all but name and these are the very people we need when we are at our most vulnerable. Incredible really.
I think that SF/IRA would be in favour of all of the defence forces going on strike.
There is no SF/IRA and never was
#labour cant afford to lose any more politicians as they face wipeout in next election. Seems strange even being allowed to bring in a bill that your own party is going to vote against. anyway glad it failed for once. have no respect for the cops in this country, and now they are looking for tasers. God help us all.
Fair Play to him but I can’t help thinking that a lot of people will be unruly in FG and Labour coming up to election time to give appearance of going against status quo etc.
They shouldn’t be allowed to strike as should transport operators especially CIE members
Why not strike how the nurses do then?
The E.U. has said it is illegal for this government to prevent them from striking and the government knows this, the rest is just spin for the news media but why is the government doing this, electioneering or what?
Trying to get a fine off the European Union I’d say.. They are only delaying the inevitable
Trying to get fines off the European Union
Ireland are not the only nation
And Oranges are not the only fruit.
The Gardai and the armed forces are not regular citizens. They should by all means be paid what is fair given their responsibilities but they should never be allowed to undermine the authority of the state. The armed forces in particular are an army that are servants of the sovereign state and should be heavily penalised for even suggesting a strike.
If you want special rules about their employment shouldn’t there be special rules about their treatment.. I.e mandatory sentence for attack on garda/emergency services?
Lots of deli food would be left over cos no lads would be up to the garages at closing looking for the free scraps!
Dave the Army cannot go on strike, that’s called a mutiny and can lead to imprisonment and loss of employment. They cover whoever else goes on strike ie fire service, prison service, bin men etc. It’s a seven day week too and for a 24hr duty they get €48 before tax.
48 euro before tax is criminal. Are you aware of any other armed forces around the world that can take industrial action Sean?
What a joke, he brings in a bill and his own party don’t support it. If memory serves me correctly didn’t Peter Mathews bring forward a bill and then vote against it because the party told him to do so ? That is not democracy !!
Niamh I’m almost sure this is all armies but here the army is not allowed into meeting about pay or conditions and are not represented unlike the Guards, nurses, firemen & prison officers. They all have unions or a representative body to fight their corner. The EU has said it is against EU law to not allow the military into pay meetings, yet this government just went against this finding.
Sean gardai are not allowed in to those meetings either. They have to employ a trade union to go in and do there bidding for them. Like the lads in the army they are treated like 2nd class citizens. Disgraceful
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