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.

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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”.