The scenes in the Dáil on Tuesday were more raucous, more bitter – and likely more repellant to many people watching – than the first instalment of the row over speaking rights in January.
That is because Government and Opposition had adopted positions that put them on an inevitable collision course.
The Government had decided it was going to use its majority in the Dáil to push through the changes to standing orders which would provide speaking time to backbench TDs from the two Coalition parties and from the ranks of the Independent TDs who back the Government.
[ ‘Shame, shame, shame’: Dáil adjourned for the day after row over speaking rightsOpens in new window ]
Famously – or infamously, if you like – this will allow Michael Lowry and his allies time to ask questions of Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris during Dáil primetime.
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Eight minutes is to be shared every Wednesday and Thursday. It’s not a lot but it is important to them. It is also very clear that it has been promised to Lowry as one of the unwritten – or at least unpublished parts of the deal to support the Government. And Micheál Martin is committed to sticking by that deal.
Observing the proceedings, it seemed like the Ceann Comhairle was fully on board with the plan. She did not adjourn the Dáil as the chairwoman would normally do during such disruptions, but instead pushed the votes through when nobody could hear her because of incessant Opposition shouting.
It is not, to be honest, the end of Irish democracy; some people need to get a grip. But creating a slot for government-supporting TDs at a time normally reserved for the Opposition representatives is a political stroke of the first order.
And for many people, the sight of Lowry sticking up his two fingers at People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Paul Murphy will be the only summary of the issue that they need.
Never mind that Murphy was, in violation of loads of Dáil rules, filming while chanting “Shame!” and trying to get a rise out of Lowry – a picture tells a thousand words.
But if the Government was prepared to ram the proposal through, the Opposition was determined to shout down the proceedings of parliament from the word go. Sinn Féin TDs were clearly under instruction to prevent the Dáil from doing its business because they didn’t like it.
Whatever you think of the Coalition’s plans, democracy requires people to be willing to lose votes and then abide by them. Their response will look wholly disproportionate to many people.
Ultimately, for parliament to work, the Government and Opposition have to agree on a common set of rules set by votes, but which respect everyone’s perspective. We look a long way away from that now.
