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WHEN THE CURRENT government swept to power in a historic election win last year there was much talk of reforming the way we do politics in Ireland.
Among that talk was that the Dáil would sit more often. There would be fewer holidays, more time devoted to debating and passing legislation and lawmakers would work harder in these austere times. In the 16 months since it took office there is no doubt that the Dáil has sat more than under the previous administration but some that has not been enough.
One of the key changes along with a reduction in the amount of recess time over Christmas, Easter and summer is that the Dáil sits on the first Friday of every month with the idea that this day is devoted entirely to allowing opposition parties, the Dáil Technical Group, and government backbenchers to introduce their own legislation without the need for government assent. TDs usually put their bills into a hat and one is selected at random for debate.
Back in February, Fianna Fáil’s Bill Kelleher was hugely critical of the sittings as a “meaningless, pointless episode” saying that “no meaningful business is being done” and criticising the lack of a presence from government ministers on Fridays. His comments came as the Irish Independent reported that day that over a fifth of government TDs were organising constituency clinics instead of attending a Friday sitting where Independent TD Stephen Donnelly’s legislation on homeowners in mortgage difficulties was to be debated.
The government voted down that legislation and said they would be bringing forward their own in due course but the government minister in attendance, Alan Shatter, also took issue Kelleher’s remarks in the chamber: “We had on the airwaves this morning Deputy Kelleher of Fianna Fáil talking about this all being a sham, none of this was serious but he assured the nation that he was going to be present in the House for this important debate.
“Well, deputy [Dara] Calleary was here but he was the only representative of Fianna Fáil who was here… If he [Kelleher] wants to make silly, political charges to get himself some personal headline perhaps he would do it on an issue that he intends to contribute to.”
Unsurprisingly, the government feels the criticism of its reforms to Dáil sittings are unwarranted and unfair. Government Chief Whip Paul Kehoe made the case to TheJournal.ie this week: “Some of the people who have criticised them have had bills themselves on a Friday. It is a smack in the face if you criticise it but you are using it. If they’re not getting anything out of it then why are they using it?”
Kehoe claims that the Dáil has sat around 42 per cent more than it did under the last administration and says there have been a huge number of deputies on all sides of the house who have put their own bills into the hat from which a bill is selected for debate on the first Friday of every month.This allows more opportunities for legislation coming from the opposition side of the house to be debated in the Dáil beyond the usual rotation of Private Members’ time which usually comes up for a party or the Technical Group every three weeks.
The aforementioned Stephen Donnelly can see the benefit: “I brought through an important bill using the Friday sitting. The bill wasn’t passed, but it was then represented to the Justice Committee who used it as part of their first recommendation on the Personal Insolvency Bill. So thanks to the Friday sitting, the protection of the family home is strengthened in the Personal Insolvency Bill and a version of my Family Home Protection Bill is also included.”
But for Niall Collins, Fianna Fáil’s newly appointed justice spokesperson and a TD since 2007, the Dáil is not sitting nearly enough. He says that if the chamber is to convene on a Friday than it should be a full sitting with the opportunity to put questions to Ministers, raise topical issues, hold committee hearings and have the Seanad in session too. “The point I am making is this: they are ticking a box and trying to give a presentation that it’s a sitting day,” he told TheJournal.ie.
“But committees aren’t sitting, there’s no questions, no topical issues. All this is is a second stage discussion of an opposition bill which, with the exception of one, have all been voted down the following Tuesday. If we’re going to have the Dáil sitting and the cost associated with it then we must have all aspects of it functioning and not just the optics.”
The exception Collins refers to is the rare outbreak of bipartisanship in the chamber just over a week ago when the Fianna Fáil proposed bill to expand the remit of Freedom of Information legislation was given government support. ”That was a very good debate, it was an excellent debate, with some extremely good contributions. The quality that is coming forward is quite good,” Kehoe added.
He also dismissed claims that it is costing a huge amount of money – some estimates put it at around €90,000 – for the Dáil to stay open on a Friday: ”It’s absolute rubbish. The Dáil is open either way on a Friday. The only extra thing you are doing, you have the chamber open and a number of staff. These staff are in the building either way and the more you use a chamber the less it costs. That’s the way I would put it,” he said.
But Collins believes that the opportunity for the Dáil to sit on a Friday is not being utilised to its full potential and dismisses the percentage of extra sittings that Kehoe has outlined.
“It’s not being utilised to its potential. The government are trying to create a representation that it is a sitting day and it’s not. It’s a limited forum of parliamentary exchange. They issue you with stats that include that as a sitting day. It’s a blatant misrepresenation, they’re massaging the figures,” he said.
As for the future, Kehoe says there are no plans to increase the number of days the Dáil sits beyond the time it already spends debating and passing legislation. The Dáil now rises this coming Thursday, 19 July to return in September.
The Chief Whip hopes to develop plans in the next term to introduce two bills for debate on a Friday instead of the current one and he is no doubt that the reforms he championed are working.
“If you look at the Dáil it is sitting longer as well. The last number of weeks, it has sat until 10pm every night and on occasion it has sat later as well,” he said.
“The general public out there have seen that the Dáil is working better and more effectively than it was in the past. We are getting more legislation through, there’s not as many guillotines as what there was, people get an opportunity to speak on legislation and the Dáil is working better, longer and more effectively.”
But for Collins even the possibility of extra legislation being introduced on the first Friday of every month will not be enough: “I am in favour of a full sitting of the Oireachtas on a Friday at full capacity, the government being present and us having a fully functioning sitting.”
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France. Always have been. Always will be.
@Vonvonic: seriously?
@Thomas O’ Donnell: I would agree with Vonvonic. The alliance goes back to Norman-Ireland. A lot of the Normans that settled in Ireland would have classed themselves as more French than English.
@Vonvonic: I would agree you only have to look at the Wolfe Tone connection
@Patrick Corr: it was at Fontenoy that the cry was heard, while charging at the British in the decisive rout by the Irish Brigade, Remember Limerick and Saxon Perfidy.
@Vonvonic: Bien sûr mon ami!
It has to be said that Irelands department of foreign affairs have done a great job over the past few years with the UN Security Council, the observer statuses, etc., but the reality is Ireland has lost our biggest ally in the EU now that the UK has gone and there are a few countries who have their eyes on several of Irelands laws and policies that they will target and not for Irelands benefit. The commenters on this site are 90% anti UK, and definitely anti everything the government does, so it’s not the best comment section to get a decent POV but it would be good to see if Irish people, in general, are aware of where we stand in the EU today
@Local Ore: The article addresses this, we build alliances on a policy basis rather than being wedded to any particular one on all things. This is a highly beneficial approach that creates political capital. The divergence of Ireland and the UK within the EU has been going on so long that when it they did leave, it impacted us far less than many expected. We are well able to plough our own furrow and protect our own interests, while keeping a pragmatic and flexible position in a fast changing world. We are also now the only EU member State with english as a first language. If we weren’t doing so well already, I’d go so far as to say that the UK’s act of self-isolation will be the making of Ireland.
@Eoin Roche: Ireland’s economic success is completely due to FDI. It was 288% of GDP in 2019. The UK accounts for far more of FDI than any EU country. In terms of exports, The US and The UK account for 41% of Irelands exports, France accounts for 4%… I mention this because France competes with Ireland far, far more than people think and they intend to target Irelands FDI, I have members of my team supporting French Public Sector bodies right now reviewing EU policies on how to target the €1Trn FDI Ireland gets. Think of the size of France, we import about €13bn from them, they import about €5bn from us. France and Germany plan to strengthen their ties and “leadership” (control) of the EU over the coming years, this isn’t to support “the making of Ireland”, it’s to grow themselves
@Eoin Roche: Dublin is now an outlier in an EU where reliance on foreign multinationals will no longer be ignored. These companies now account for 32 percent of all jobs in Ireland and 49 percent of employment taxes. 75 percent of recent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Ireland either comes from the U.S. (58 percent) or the U.K. (17 percent). By contrast, just 5 percent comes from Germany. Dublins Economic Model is the talking point of EU policymakers, as I mentioned, and we are already seeing it – harmonised corporation tax. Next will be FDI policy and they are already drawing it up to try to “harmonise” it toward other EU countries.
@Eoin Roche: Correction: Malta has English as a first language.
@Nick Caffrey: Correction: Maltese is the 1st language in Malta, English is 2nd and also an official language
@Local Ore: You are failing to differentiate between US FDI and UK FDI. The US is by far more important than the UK to us, no comparison. Why do you conflate two wildly different countries/economies?
@Leo Sharkey: I’m not conflating them in any way, I’m pointing out that Irelands largest investment, and trade, comes from outside the EU and was heavily protected by the UK supporting Ireland on policy and vice-versa. I’ve seen people on this site say France and Germany are major allies/supporters of Ireland and I wonder if it’s total lack of knowledge, deliberate ignorance or just the anti-UK sentiment of most of the commenters. Only in Ireland do people think Ireland is better off in the EU without the UK… it goes against all logic and facts. The EU is a body of consultation and common action between states, underpinned by legal and institutional arrangements. These arrangements are evolving in response to needs as they arise and France and Germany’s needs to do not align to Irelands.
France and Germany have supported us throughout the whole Brexit process and NI protocol . If they wavered in their support for us, the British would sense an opportunity and end up causing trouble in Northern Ireland.
We are more aligned with our Nordic blood brothers and france than any of the other countries in europe.
It is worth recalling that the old British policy of DIVIDE AND CONQUER failed when they attempted to disunite the EU approach to recent events.
It’s a right tough one, not Portugal or Spain because of the amount that go there on holiday, they know what we are like when let out. Not the French as they’ve always tried to help us but end up making a balls out of it and then think it’s our fault. Not Poland, they know what we’re like too from half of them being here at one stage. It wont be the Italians either as the blue shirts have given Mussolini’s black shirts a bad name! I’ll run out of characters soon so I’m sure others can fill in the blanks, who haven’t we pissed off?
@This time its personable!: Did you read the article? The Scandinavian and Benelux countries are our natural allies in Europe.
@JustMeHere: I did boy, I didn’t include them there I was pointing out the additional reasons why the others aren’t too for caring about us!
I would argue that Angela Merkel and Germany have been our quiet allies for 20 years, France, the Baltic, and Benelux states, but generally speaking we have good relationships with all our EU colleagues.
@Leo Sharkey: I literally work in this area of the public sector and can tell by this comment that you most definitely do not. France has been attacking Irelands tax and FDI for my entire career, the “Dublin Economy” drives them mad in Brussels. The Netherlands directly competes, and wins, in financial services with Ireland. Ireland has a deregulated, highly flexible global economy that lacks the comprehensive social protections of continental counterparts such as the Netherlands or Denmark, the model stands in stark contrast to the centralism unleashed from the Elysée. The countries you mention are highly focused on corporate and digital taxation, data protection and the further centralization of the eurozone – all massively damaging and contrasting to the Irish model.
Henry 8th’s break was the same mentality as Brexit. A difference is that Boris will not be confiscating assets of Europeans and calling it a reformation.
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