LEADER OF THE Labour Party Ivana Bacik has called Micheál Martin and Simon Harris this morning to request a leaders meeting early Tuesday morning, to try and resolve the ongoing row over Dáil speaking rights ahead of the midday Dáil reform meeting that day.

A mammoth meeting on Friday between leaders failed to reach an agreement on the issue, which has been at the forefront of the new government since the Dáil reconvened. 

On Friday evening, leaders of Sinn Féin, Labour, Independent Ireland, the Social Democrats and People Before Profit wrote to Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris to say their proposal to end the row is “entirely unacceptable”.

This afternoon, leader of the opposition Mary Lou McDonald said that there is a solution to the ongoing argument over Micheal Lowry and the Regional Independents’ Dáil speaking rights. 

Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week with Justin McCarthy, the Sinn Féin leader said while the grouping was entitled to support the government, logically that should mean that the group’s speaking time comes from government speaking time rather than the opposition’s.

McDonald said that as the grouping were party to the program for government and have colleagues holding ministerial office, they were in essence part of the government. 

“If [The Regional Independents] wish to form a new grouping on the government benches, we have indicated clearly that we are open to that,” McDonald said.

“That’s the solution. But what we will not have is any attempt to pretend that you can be in government and in opposition at the same time.”

The Sinn Féin leader added that her party, and the opposition as a whole, “will stand [their] ground”.

“We are simply not prepared to be pushed around by this government, to have logic and reality turned upside down. This is Alice in Wonderland stuff.

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“We’re not prepared to allow the democratic function of the opposition to be undermined at the very, very beginning of this new Dáil.”

The Dáil erupted in an unprecedented row last week over the issue of speaking time that led to Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy suspending the Dáil without the nomination of the Taoiseach. 

The opposition have since banded together to oppose Lowry’s group of Independents from speaking during opposition time, which has lead to a political stalemate.