We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
PRESSURE IS MOUNTING on Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy as the opposition unites in their position that it no longer has confidence in her.
However, this evening, Murphy said she has no plans to resign.
There were fiery exchanges in the Dáil this afternoon, when Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald kicked things off by telling Murphy that her position is untenable.
“You need to go,” McDonald told Murphy, accusing her of showing bias in favour of the government and of “taking a wrecking ball” to government procedure.
What next for the Ceann Comhairle?
Murphy now has a choice to make: she can face down the opposition in a vote likely to take place next week or leave her position.
Today, the opposition gave Murphy until the end of the week to resign or else face a no confidence motion.
The motion, which was submitted this evening, according to Sinn Féin, states:
“That the Ceann Comhairle no longer retains the confidence of all members of Dáil Éireann”.
The motion of no confidence is sponsored by party leaders, Mary Lou McDonald, Ivana Bacik, Cian O’Callaghan, Richard Boyd Barrett and Michael Collins.
Notably, Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman, who stood beside the other party leaders yesterday on the plinth, has not co-signed the motion today.
Murphy said in a statement this evening that she has no intention of going anywhere.
The Ceann Comhairle said she was elected by the majority of members of the Dáil and her office has endeavoured “in utmost good faith” to sort out the speaking rights row over a two-month period.
Despite months of negotiation, no consensus or resolution could be found, she said.
“I have loyally, scrupulously, and impartially adhered to my solemn undertakings made to the House, and through the House to the Irish people,” she said this evening.
“Prolonged disorder and obstruction is utterly unacceptable in any democratic parliament. So too is making false accusations of partiality and collusion against its officials and Chair.
“By virtue of the independence of the office of Ceann Comhairle, I am in the unenviable position that I cannot descend at will into debate to defend myself against the entirely false allegations of collusion made against me in the Dáil today,” Murphy said.
The Ceann Comhairle said she categorically rejects “totally unfounded allegations” made against her, stating that she has always acted on the advice of the impartial officials present.
“I fully intend to continue to carry out the onerous office to which I was elected in accordance with the solemn undertakings I gave the Dáil upon my election,” she said, urging all members of the House to “abide by their own constitutional obligations, to refrain from disorder and to respect the rights and dignity of every other member”.
In addition to the statement from the Ceann Comhairle, correspondence from the Dáil Clerk, Peter Finnegan, to Murphy was also released this evening, which outlines that the Ceann Comhairle exercised her discretion to proceed directly to Order of Business yesterday, without holding a vote, due to the “significant level of disorder” in the chamber.
Sinn Féin Chief Whip Pádraig Mac Lochlainn said the Ceann Comhairle said Murphy should “step aside” as she has lost the confidence of the “entire Opposition” in the Dáil.
Will the government support the Ceann Comhairle and put down a countermotion?
A government source told The Journal that “vote or no vote”, the government has confidence in the Ceann Comhairle.
In terms of a countermotion of confidence in Murphy, it is understood that government will consider the matter when it arises.
The motion of no confidence will almost certainly be defeated as the government parties and groupings will support her.
However, that would not be the end of the matter.
Those in opposition have said its protest will continue, even if the motion is defeated.
Asked this evening, Sinn Féin’s Rose Conway-Walsh, said if her party’s motion is defeated on Tuesday, the matter will be discussed between all opposition parties as to “what happens in that case”.
The difficulty for Murphy going forward, after defeating such a motion, would be her maintaining her authority and being seen as impartial, which the opposition have clearly said they do not believe she is.
Along the corridors of Leinster House, politicians has been recalling similar circumstances in which a Ceann Comhairle found himself in bother.
In the dark days of the recession in 2009, it was revealed that Fianna Fáil TD for Kerry and Ceann Comhairle John O’Donoghue had run up over €200,000 in lavish expenses in just two years.
O’Donoghue stepped down after Eamon Gilmore, then leader of the Labour Party, told him in the Dáil that his position was “no longer tenable”. O’Donoghue stepped aside before the matter went to a vote of confidence.
Politicians The Journal spoke to today said there is one key difference, in that Murphy has the confidence of government, something O’Donoghue did not, meaning he had to step aside.
There is a view that Murphy “hasn’t a notion of stepping down”.
The current situation emerged after chaotic scenes of shouting, interruptions and allegations of misogyny in the Dáil yesterday, where the speaking rights row boiled over during Leaders’ Questions.
Murphy faced continual interruptions as she tried to continue proceedings as opposition TDs took to their feet and objected to the Government’s proposals to change speaking time arrangements.
She declared the changes to the standing orders passed before adjourning the Dail. However, opposition leaders insist the vote was not properly conducted.
They also accused her of earlier pushing through the government’s proposed order of business for the Dail without acknowledging an opposition request for a vote.
The row has its origins in the formation of Ireland’s current coalition involving Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, supported by several independent TDs.
Some of those independents have been appointed as junior ministers while the others had sought to join an opposition technical group for the purposes of speaking time, despite supporting the formation of government.
The controversial changes to standing orders include the creation of new speaking slots for coalition backbenchers and Government-aligned independents, a reduction of time for contributions on debating the order of business, and a halving of slots for Taoiseach’s Questions.
Opposition parties are vehemently opposed to the changes, characterising them as 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.
While the Taoiseach and ministers continue to avoid questions from the opposition about Michael Lowry’s role in government and what deal was struck with him, they continue to focus on how the changes will benefit backbench TDs and their speaking time.
While there is a hope within government that the speaking rights row will dissipate and the public will become tiresome of the issue, there is no sign of it, as the opposition continue to hammer the government with the simple message: that you can’t be in opposition and government at the same time.
With additional reporting by PA
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Enough, FFS!! Enough is enough.
No self respecting human can say this act of pure savagery was done on their behalf.
May the innocent victims of these animals rest in peace.
Tragic event and an awful way to die.
..Glen you don’t perhaps work for a living do you? Your here more than me!
Early retirement Royston
Rocket Science must take a lot out of ya! ;-)
These ‘soldiers’ are brave enough to take up arms and fight for their cause, but too cowardly to come forward and admit responsibility for their actions.
What ” soldiers” are you talking about ?
I’m assuming that those responsible label themselves as ‘soldiers’. I could be wrong, maybe they call themselves something else.
Soldiers don’t do that
Terrorists do !
See my previous comment.
Surely there should be a warning on the third picture down that there are clearly visible human remains!!! These poor people and their families deserve some respect and this picture should be taken down!
Sorry about that, Fiona. That picture wasn’t meant to be there at all.
I’d say its pretty hard to publish a picture by mistake.
..yeah after the Lady spotted it! Bad form guys..
The news has been showing pictures of body’s since yesterday.
Please remove it then.
Hi guys,
The picture was in there by mistake and was removed within minutes.
It was a genuine error on my part and in no way was meant to be exploitative. Had I meant that, I could have used it as the main picture.
Paul
Why would you put a picture of bodies as the main picture?
You visited an article with a subject indicating that it was going to show pictures of a plane crash site where almost 300 people have died and now you are complaining because the pictures show the horrific scene in full?
Wow. Just wow. What did you expect to see when you visited this article?
Have to agree Cupán Tae – the subject matter is grim and while it’s unsettling and harrowing to view such footage, from a journalistic point of view I don’t criticise organisations/media that publish such pictures. It brings home the awful reality of what happened.
@ Cupán Tae
Some people aren’t happy unless they are offended at least once a day.
Why would a family member scroll down through an article that’s headed “In pictures: The MH17 crash site”?
Because the journalism saying is, if it bleeds it leads.” To get more hits on the article or the site, he could have used that photo as the main article image. Obviously he didn’t because it wasn’t intended that way. But some news outlets will do that as the intended purpose.
Do you remember crash plane in Russia, 4 years ago with Polish president Lech Kaczynski and many Polish politicians? It was an accident-they said. Yes, probably it was. But until today Russian government (or president of Russia?) doesn’t want to give back this plane, recorded tape and they don’t want to investigate what really happen there. Please, don’t do the same mistake again-these top Russian politicians understand only the language of straight and power. If all nations cannot speak on the same way-it may happen again. They don’t care about passengers or their families. It would be sad if this tragedy won’t be a good lesson how to speak with Putin. I hope you have no any doubts he supported terrorists on Ukraine land?
Under international laws, nether the Rebels have any right to take the FDRs since they are not a recognised country and since the aircraft was in Ukrainian airspace the Russians have no right to have it.
International law didn’t stop Russia from taking Crimea.
Will this be another Lusitania or pearl harbour ?? If this was indeed Russia , it would have to be proven , they can’t get away with it , then again media convinced us all there was weapons of mass destruction in Iraq !!!
They have been steeping up security recently at airports emphasising to charge up your smart devices before flying etc.
Just how exactly do they plan on preventing another one of these? It’s a new level and it’s scary.
It’s not new John, this had happened before & in the Ukraine..
Point taken Royston but it’s still going to cost the passenger as now airlines will have to consider every route near a war zone and use an alternate. What is new to me is that someone can take down a plane from the surface at 33,000 feet. Normally they try and get them coming in to land etc. That’s what I meant.
Also happened in Iraq several years ago, just goes to show no matter how many hoops they make you jump through at security and how many bottles of water they take off you, if someone wants to do something badly enough they’ll always find a way.
John point taken but your assuming it was a deliberate attack?
The airline was allegedly shot down by a very sophisticated missile system designed primarily to take down large NATO bombers during the Cold War..
Perhaps it would be wise for airlines to avoid areas of conflict where these systems are active..
Personally I think this could have been avoided, there was a lot of Anti Aircraft defence systems active in this region over the past few days. Why this was not taken onboard by the relevant air authorities is something we will have to learn over the coming days..
John – “airlines will have to consider every route near a war zone”. I agree. If implemented the vast majority of the Middle East and a large country in Eastern Europe will be no go areas for commercial airlines.
Barry the Iraq event was a smaller shoulder launched missile intent on targeting a western military or commercial aircraft.. To joe public it seems the same but it’s not. The Malaysian Airways aircraft was transitioning the airspace above Ukraine & flying at 10k above ground, well past the capabilities of the best shoulder fired rocket..
Well aware of the facts of that incident thanks, the plane was still shot down by an a$$hole wasn’t it? My point was in reply to John’s original comment on threat levels and preventing things like this i.e. you can’t.
“What is new to me is that someone can take down a plane from the surface at 33,000 feet.”
The Soviet-designed Buk missile system can be used to engage targets at an altitude of up to 85,000 feet depending on the version. Missiles capable of engaging targets at extremely high altitude have existed for over 50 years.
Please remove the picture of the dead bodies. Most news sites have chosen not to show them, I didn’t expect to see it here.
You should see the news sheets
Third photo down shows dead bodies, out of respect it should be removed,
They should be given 24 hours to hand over Igor Strelkov or else the world should take over the territory that he is controlling like he was boosting about taking another bird out of the sky just 20 min after the flight crashed
Putin the s***bag had to have armed them so now it is time the world turned it back on russia
We need world leader that are not going to shy away from holding the s***bags that did this to account
Is it normal for an airliner to fly over a war zone?
Apparently is was flying 1000ft above the warzone area. Could only think they did that to save money instead of using fuel to go around it.
Mark, yes on a particularly busy and active flight path linking two continents
Yep! I flew over Iraq (bagdad to be precise, twice between 06 & 09), although the airline removed the names of the city from the onscreen map you could still make out the Euphrates down in the city.. I guess they just didn’t deem the height we were at as a threat..
@ Jason
Think it was 33k feet?
I read it and also heard it on news talk. That’s all.
I mean 1000ft above the air/sky area that is deemed a no flyzone. Not as in flying 1000ft above the ground.
More than that even from the information I saw. No-fly zone extended up to 4,000m while MH17 was at an altitude of 10,000m.
I see. Thank you gentlemen.
Why did Ukraine traffic control tell the Airline to drop its altitude.
This horrific event also raises a question regarding civil aviation routing – why in Gods name are passenger aircraft flying over a war zone in the first place? A major rethink required to protect passenger welfare.
have your say