SUMMER RECALLS OF the Dáil are pretty rare. Which is why today’s announcement that the government has decided to recall the Dáil next week to ensure fuel supports can carry on past September has caught people by surprise. 

Though rare, the opposition regularly calls for the Dáil to be recalled. During the Easter break, Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald called for an urgent sitting of the Dáil in the midst of the fuel protests.

There were similar calls after the Dublin riots in 2023. However, it is unusual for the government to take heed. 

The last time politicians had to end their summer holidays early to go back into work was in August 2020, in the wake of the Golf Gate controversy. 

The pandemic was at its height when there was public fury over revelations that 81 guests attended the golf dinner in Clifden, Co Galway, just a day after the government had announced strict new coronavirus measures.

Speaking in September 2020, Ó Fearghail labelled the event “collective crass stupidity” or “arrogant delusion”.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin recalled the Dáil early, with the Ceann Comhairle at the time, Seán Ó Fearghaíl, delivering a scathing attack on the event, which he said were a result of “collective, crass stupidity or arrogant delusion or both”. 

Fianna Fáil’s Dara Calleary resigned his position as agriculture minister for attending the dinner while Fine Gael Senator Jerry Buttimer resigned as Leas-Cathaoirleach of the Seanad.

At the time, the Dáil was actually being housed over the Convention Centre in Dublin so that politicians could distance themselves from each other.

Though their faces were shielded with facemasks, it was pretty clear they weren’t happy to be hauled back into work early. 

It was a surreal time. 

Apple tax

In 2016, politicians also had to cut their summer holidays short to debate the Apple tax debacle.

Over the summer that year there had been a bombshell ruling from the European Commission that Ireland should claim back €13 billion in taxes from Apple. 

Refurbishment of the chamber had speeded up the weekend before they returned to ensure Dáil facilities would be up and running for the unexpected sitting, which was a 10-hour stretch of debating. 

Next week’s Dáil session, the politicians will be glad to hear, should be a bit shorter than in 2016, as there is just one item on the agenda: amending legislation so the 1 September excise reversal won’t kick in. 

It will also be less contentious than 2016, as the opposition are in full agreement that the excise reversal plan cannot go ahead while fuel prices remain so volatile. 

In a statement this afternoon, the government said the temporary reductions to fuel excise that were extended in June will now be extended beyond September. 

The global situation remains in flux and as a consequence the cost of petrol and diesel for consumers remains high. Government ministers had said over the summer months that if there weren’t improvements and if the cost at the pumps was nearing the €2 mark, then it would be difficult for the reversal plan to go ahead. 

However, one might wonder why the original plan didn’t have mid-September as an end date for the excise supports; at least politicians would be back by then in the likely case they wanted to extend the excise cuts again.

Instead, stipulating in law that it would kick in on 1 September has now caused a bit of a headache in terms of having to recall the Dáil and haul themselves back into Leinster House.

The opposition will dub this a U-turn, while the government will point out that this was always going to be an option on the table as they kept the situation under review.

Either way, the politicians who will have had to cut their summer holidays short won’t be happy.