Taoiseach Micheál Martin has insisted that the Government and the Dáil are “working” after “unacceptable” scenes erupted in Leinster House last week. Meanwhile, Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien said he hopes next week’s confidence vote in Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy in the Dáil will mark an end of the speaking rights row.
The Government is set to table a motion of confidence in Ms Murphy next week. The move comes after Opposition parties brought forward a motion of no confidence in Ms Murphy over her handling of Dáil proceedings on Tuesday that saw the Government push through changes to Dáil speaking rules.
The new rules will provide opportunities for Independent TDs that support the Government, like controversial Tipperary North Deputy Michael Lowry, and Coalition party backbenchers more opportunities to pose questions to the Taoiseach and Tánaiste. The Opposition has vehemently opposed the changes to the Dáil’s standing orders.
Mr Martin said on Friday the Dáil was working “but not optimally”, adding that “I think in the interest of all members of the House, people want the Oireachtas to work and want the Oireachtas to work effectively”.
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The Taoiseach was speaking at City Hall in Limerick on Friday ahead of the inaugural meeting of the Limerick Mayoral and Government Consultative Forum.
He referred to the arguments from the Opposition as “unacceptable”, saying: “No matter what our views are you can’t just, in a co-ordinated way, shut people down in a manner to make sure that they don’t get their voices (heard)”.
He said he himself wasn’t allowed the “right to speak” during the Dáil row. “I kept speaking, but there were attempts to drown me down in a very co-ordinated way.”
Separately, Mr O’Brien accused Opposition parties of “absolutely disgraceful” behaviour during last Tuesday’s disruption of Dáil proceedings, and said: “The Ceann Comhairle was treated with such disrespect that I have never actually witnessed before, and I’ve been in the Dáil since 2007.”
He said Ms Murphy “has executed her functions absolutely properly”, and added: “I would hope that Tuesday [the confidence motion vote] will conclude the situation.”
Mr O’Brien said: “The Ceann Comhairle has our full support, and we will be supporting her in that vote on Tuesday. And the Opposition, I would say, need to get on with the job at hand. Yes, hold the Government to account, absolutely. But the election has happened. They lost.
“There’s a reality that the Government has been put together, that every new Oireachtas comes in, standing orders are altered or reformed or changed.”
Mr O’Brien said that there are Deputies within the Regional Independent Group that do not hold ministerial office but “deserve to be able to speak”.
