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LAST UPDATE | 21 Mar
THE NOW LONGSTANDING row over Dáil speaking rights may be put to bed next week, with a vote on changes to standing orders scheduled for Tuesday.
The disagreement over speaking rights for Michael Lowry and three of his Regional Independent colleagues has hung over the Dáil like a storm cloud since the end of January.
A consequence of the argument, which led to Micheál Martin’s election as Taoiseach being delayed by a day, has been that Dáil committees have not been properly functioning since before November’s general election.
On Tuesday, the Dáil will vote on changes to standing orders after they were agreed at a fractious four-hour meeting of the Dáil’s reform committee at the end of February.
At the time, the Opposition accused the Government of ramming the changes through with its majority.
Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats, People Before Profit and Independent Ireland have tabled an amendment to the Government’s proposed changes to Dáil standing orders.
The proposed amendment would see TDs Michael Lowry, Gillian Toole, Barry Heneghan and Danny Healy-Rae recognised as a Government-aligned technical group.
Speaking today in Belfast, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said:
“We’ve entered our amendment, we’re going to face the Government down on this.”
“It is a very serious matter it is not about who gets five minutes or 10 minutes here or there, this is fundamentally about defining government and opposition,” McDonald said.
She confirmed that Opposition leaders will meet next week ahead of Tuesday’s vote to agree a joint approach.
In a statement issued yesterday, Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan criticised the Government for not facilitating a Dáil debate on the proposed changes to standing orders ahead of the vote.
“It is completely unprecedented for any government to refuse to facilitate a Dáil debate before a vote – especially when the Opposition are united in calling for one,” he said.
“The text of the standing orders the Government wants to ram though, to give the Lowry Group the same speaking rights as Opposition leaders, was only circulated for the first time last night.
“There has never been a Dáil debate on them or on this issue. Despite this, the Government wants to upend decades of parliamentary practice and give its own backbench supporters the same speaking rights as the Opposition.
“This is a brazen and arrogant attack on democratic norms and the proper functioning of the Dáil, which is being done with the express purpose of reducing the Opposition’s ability to hold the government to account,” O’Callaghan said.
People Before Profit leader Richard Boyd Barrett said the changes are “even worse than we thought”.
He also drew attention to the Government’s proposed plan to reduce the ‘Taoiseach’s Questions’ slot in the Dáil from twice to once a week.
Boyd Barrett dubbed the proposal “outrageous” and said it would “dramatically reduce the Taoiseach’s accountability to the Dáil and the ability of all Dáil members to question the Taoiseach”.
“This is part of the emerging pattern of the Government reducing and diluting the Opposition’s opportunities to hold the Government to account in the Dáil. All of this is alarming and none of it will be accepted by us,” he said.
Labour Party whip and TD Duncan Smith said the Government’s proposed changes to standing orders appear “designed primarily to facilitate the TDs aligned with Michael Lowry”.
He said the Labour Party has made clear its consistent position that TDs “cannot be in Government and Opposition at the same time”.
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This man shouldn’t be allowed to run for a bus, never mind run for office.
He is part of the reason Motorola pulled out of Ireland. He is part of the reason for 20 years we had some for the highest cost for mobile phones calls and data.
In most other European nations (except Russia)
He would spending time in a 6×8.
@Lance Taylor: FFS!
Opposition are pathetic
@Lance Taylor: lmao, free cocaine for everyone!
@Lance Taylor: McGregor had 19 convictions up to 2021.
He has several more pending
Statistically he has more convictions than about 99.5 of the population.
He should be spending time in a 6×8 also.
But on a more serious note McGregor will never get into power.
The only power he has ever displayed is when he overpowered a woman or beat an old man when he wasn’t looking.
@Billy Meehan: and you’re a w⚓️
Muted. Don’t bother.
If the Irish voting citizens weren’t so terrified of change Ffg would have been sent to history along time ago
@Robert Halvey: And what?Replace with Sf/IRA or a bunch of student union politicians?……It’s not that people are afraid of change,it’s that they are afraid of the useless opposition.
@Robert Halvey:
Unfortunately we have no real opposition.
Sinn fein are a no no for me. I cannot vote for a party that gave a man you murdered a Garda a standing ovation.
PBP are a load of wacko’s with no idea that bills need to be paid.
Ireland first nonsense is just that.
I just want a sensible centre left party.
@John Paul: iam no sf supporter but I find everything about ffg repulsive, From the thier collusion with the Catholic Church to demonise rape,abuse and sometimes cover up murder of women children the sick and the most vulnerable . Haughey and berti robing the country blind and never been heald accountable . Giving contaminated blood to sick people knowing it would kill them, Allowing babies to be sold to wealthy Americans Allowing big pharma to use children a in care to be used to test unlicensed drugs on , And of course bankrupting the country
@Robert Halvey: give it a rest, SF ain’t going to deliver some grand utopia, if anything, they’d set the country back decades with their fixation on border poll rubbish, they don’t even know what a woman is, for christ sake
@Robert Halvey: SF/IRA tried to cover up the rape of kids, they were directly involved in such scandal
@Robert Halvey:
A lot to be fearful of in fairness.
The posh communists and the fascist in Sinn Fein.
@Robert Halvey:
And the Irish at the time including your grandparents turned a blind eye and continued to vote in who ever got them a medical card
@H Woo: and mehole threatening to force some of his fellow government to be classed as opposition isn’t fascism
@Robert Halvey:
No, Nobody is losing speaking time, an extra 6 minutes has been added on to opposition speaking time. Sinn Fein will continue to have the same shouting time as before.
@H Woo: ffg are decades ahead of the crying lying orange thing when it comes to lies , the lowery crew are part of a government, forcing the opposition to accept them, is an act of fascism and treacherous to our constitution
@H Woo: you don’t know my family do yourself a favour don’t make me know yours ,
@Robert Halvey:
Let me guess,
You have special skills?
@Robert Halvey:
Nothing in the Constitution about speaking rights. It’s a simple matter of modernizing Dail standing orders.
@H Woo: bring my family into a conversation again and you will find out
Wish the opposition would unite on a lot more issues.
@Robbie O’Halloran: they would never agree
Lowry was offered reduced speaking rights but he is holding out for an extension .
@The Rossie:
Maybe if they give him his voting rights in a brown paper envelope he would be quicker to take them.
@The Rossie: excellent, worthy of larry
FFGL have contempt for the republic. They’re in this to line their pockets. Lowr(e)y looks after his constituents and that’s what gets him in. Fair enough. but the national parliament is not supposed to be the plaything of these rouges. The opposition could stay united and get into government next time around maybe.
Just in time, maybe, for depression, austerity and the increasing fallout from disastrous FFGL policies regarding immigration/integration
@Darth O’Leary:
Sinn Fein at one point lied to the Irish people and their own members who where not in the golden circle that they all lived on the Average Industrial Wage, until dessie ratted them all out
@Darth O’Leary:
The best defence Damocracy has against communism (besides better weapons) is all the left wing parties waste their time trying to out Marxist one another.
@Darth O’Leary:
Sinn Fein has an open borders policy for refugees.
FFGLOWRY dictatorship now in full swing
@Kevin O Brien:
When you have more democratically elected TDs then the other side have, it’s called Damocracy.
It’s fitting that FFG get into to bed with similarly flawed individuals. Back hander buddies.
@Daniel Gilroy:
Two Sinn Fein TDs being checked out at the moment.
@Daniel Gilroy: SF the political wing of an illegal army. SF that gives standing ovations to Garda killers.
@Vincent Alexander:
And do their banking in Bulgaria.
@Vincent Alexander: FFG give yearly standing ovations to serial terrorist Michael Collins
@Kevin O Brien:
Collins did not murder in cold blood our Gardai.
@Vincent Alexander:
All political parties were at one time associated with illegal armies.
Before 1916 up until recently. They were all connected to the IRA in some form.
One of the most expensive countries in Europe, services creaking but yea… ‘speaking rights’.. inspiring stuff.
@Thesaltyurchin: if you don’t understand the significance of speaking rights, perhaps you should stay quiet?
@Thesaltyurchin: Civics class wasted on you…
@Thesaltyurchin: electricty up 66% to the end of feb,,,
@Thesaltyurchin:
Learn how important this is.
@james rowan: Good thing it can be debated at the dail
@Patrick Kavanagh: it’s a sublime move by FFG in fairness. These clowns still flapping about with nothing of significance to say.
@Thesaltyurchin:
Having someone in the opposition is a masterpiece.
@james rowan: you know sex toys take batteries?
@james rowan: do u really believe if others were in power that would be any different? U are deluded
On other threads: This is YOUR comments community.
Comments closed.
Speaking of speaking rights…
@Shaun:
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
@Thomas O’Brien: Wednesday’s poll – Are you happy? Yes until Paul Murphy, Ms McDonald or Mr Doherty come on whinging on the TV.
@Vincent Alexander:
I definitely have no time for Paul Murphy.
He stood by as his cronies attacked Joan Burton in Tallaght. He is a sleaze ball.
The left-wing and far-left parties in the Dáil have continually embarrassed themselves by disrupting the proceedings and attempting to silence the politicians that this whole row is about. The four Independents don’t hold any cabinet positions and are not part of the government. They should be entitled to sit on the opposition benches. Tony Gregory already set the precedent for this back in the 1980s. This move by the four Independents allows them freely vote for bills that benefit their rural constituents and vote against bills that don’t (e.g. anti-agriculture or anti-farmer ones). The opposition parties just don’t want people who don’t toe the ideological line getting into their clique. They’ve behaved in such an arrogant manner that I’m actually siding with our terrible government.
I hope, one day, there will be a political party who will represent and work on behalf of Irish people, and not some other woke, box ticking clown show, like the Opposition
Tax payers do not only pay the government tds they pay the opposition to, GET SOME WORK DONE ON THE LEFT CONSTANT TROUBLE MAKING.
About time the government showed a bit of leadership and got on with it.
Hopefully this issue can be resolved quickly. There a massive global issues burning away and the government need to be united, possibly with opposition as well, to combat the threat from the east and the west.
@Argus Romsworth:
Unfortunately Sinn Fein does not own one Irish Jersey between the lot of them.
@H Woo: sure look at the far right candidate elected to Dublin council who’s using taxpayer money to get a hair transplant.
@Argus Romsworth:
Name him,
The opposition don’t have the numbers – a nonsense
Speaking time from what I’ve seen and heard best is we didn’t have to listen to the elected nobody’s who will never do anything only crib and moan
This is a very bad idea. It’s the thin edge of the wedge.
Won’t happen.
Oh Mary Lou when will you realise that SF and their crazy leftie friends are an absolute irrelevance to this country.
FFS, can they not let it go at this stage? The country is faced with a multitude of problems and the best the so called opposition can do is whine over how many minutes they’re allowed to waffle on. The government must be delighted as all this achieves is to distract people from their shortcomings.
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