Opposition leaders fail to express confidence in speaker after Dail chaos

Opposition leaders have failed to express confidence in the speaker of the Irish parliament after disruptions broke out over speaking time.

Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy fielded interruptions and tried to continue proceedings in the Dail chamber as opposition TDs took to their feet and objected to the government’s proposals.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin, and members of his Fianna Fail party, accused the opposition of trying to bully and intimidate Ms Murphy and said it “marked a new low”.

Fianna Fail TD John Lahart said what happened in the Dail “was akin to a mob”.

“There were people intimidated, there was chanting in the chamber, and there was rank bullying of some members in Dail Eireann today. Anything else pales in insignificance in the context of what happened.”

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said that opposition leaders were “troubled” by Ms Murphy’s actions in the Dail to pass the order of business and changes to the standing orders, despite dissent from the opposition.

She suggested this was “orchestrated” and said opposition leaders would discuss the matter further.

Ms McDonald, alongside the leaders of Labour, Independent Ireland, People Before Profit, the Green Party, as well as the deputy leader of the Social Democrats and an Aontu TD, failed to express confidence in the Ceann Comhairle by a show of hands.

“I don’t think anybody could have confidence in what we witnessed today,” Ms McDonald said.

“Very shockingly, the Ceann Comhairle has been part of ramming through these new provisions, we are very troubled by that.

“There is no doubt that she has done significant damage to her standing and to the independence of the office itself.”

She added: “The whole situation was highly problematic, the Ceann Comhairle was not minded to listen to the clear dissent that was being expressed, there were shortcuts taken in a manner that appeared to be – to us – orchestrated.”

Labour leader Ivana Bacik said Ms Murphy pushed through the order of business after “ignoring the calls of dissent” by the opposition.

“Very difficult to maintain confidence in the office of somebody chairing a chamber in that way,” she said.

The Social Democrats’ Cian O’Callaghan said: “There are huge questions to be asked about the role of the Ceann Comhairle and that is something we will be discussing again.”

Ms Murphy adjourned the Dail until Wednesday morning after declaring that the change to the standing orders was carried, despite opposition parties attempting to obstruct the result.

The vote is understood to be 94 to 74.

Opposition tellers for the no side refused to sign the paper, but Ms Murphy said, amid a cacophony of objections, that the changes were passed.

Criticism has also been levelled by opposition at Independent TD Michael Lowry, who is at the centre of the speaking time controversy, over a video of him giving two fingers in the Dail.

Ms McDonald, Labour leader Ivana Bacik and other opposition leaders said the “image of the day” would be Mr Lowry “giving us the two fingers, but much more damningly, giving the Irish people the two fingers too”.

The Government and opposition are in deep disagreement over how coalition-affiliated independent TDs, including Mr Lowry, should be given speaking slots in the Dail.

The Irish government has pushed for new Dail speaking slots for coalition backbenchers and Government-aligned independents, as well as a reduction in the time allocated to debate the order of business and a halving of time for Taoiseach’s Questions.

Independents who entered into Government negotiations were led by Mr Lowry – a former Fine Gael minister who was found by a tribunal to have behaved in a way that was “profoundly corrupt to a degree that was nothing short of breathtaking”.

Weeks after the government said it would try to find a compromise with the opposition, the Government moved to push through its proposals on Tuesday.

Before the vote took place, opposition TDs took to their feet and raised their objections, ignoring pleas from the Ceann Comhairle to resume their seats.

During the lengthy standoff, Ms Murphy ordered TDs to sit down and said they were making a “holy show of yourselves”.

She then invited the Government Chief Whip Mary Butler to continue with the next item amid a chorus of raised voices from dozens of opposition TDs.

Proceedings were adjourned for a short time before they resumed to hold a vote on the amendments to the standing orders, which Ms Murphy said were carried.

Mr Murphy then adjourned the Dail for the day before 4pm.

The Taoiseach accused the opposition of “a premeditated attempt to suppress the rights of others to speak, and to bully and intimidate the Ceann Comhairle”.

“The prolonged barracking and the disgraceful lack of respect for the mandates of elected deputies was shocking in its intensity,” he said in a statement.

He said the actions of opposition have been “completely disproportionate over what is essentially an additional eight minutes of speaking time on two days in the Dail”.

“The opposition have not lost a single minute of their time or ability to hold government to account,” he said.

Opposition parties argue the changes are an attempt to dilute their ability to hold the Government to account and to blur the relationship between the independents who have supported the formation of the coalition and opposition.

The row has its origins in the formation of Ireland’s current coalition involving Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, supported by several independents.

Some of those independents have been appointed as junior ministers while the others had sought to join an opposition technical group to be given Dail speaking time, despite supporting the formation of Government.

The row delayed Mr Martin’s nomination as Taoiseach in January and has trundled on despite several inter-party meetings and the intervention of the Ceann Comhairle in favour of the opposition.

This led to a brief reprieve before the dispute was reignited after the Government put forward new proposals and suggested it would use its majority to push them through.

The coalition’s changes deal with the matter of the government-aligned independents by creating a new designation of “other members”, rather than the binary distinction of opposition or government.

A side-effect of the row is that parliamentary committees have also not reformed since the general election last year.

Opposition parties have raised concern over whether the Government will seek to use the proposed new technical group for the purposes of getting more representation on committees.