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WE WERE SUPPOSED to elect a new Taoiseach today but instead Dáil Éireann descended into complete and utter chaos.
Proceedings to elect a new Taoiseach and government were abandoned this afternoon after the row over speaking rights for the government-supporting Independent TDs escalated further and ultimately came to a stalemate.
The plan is that the Dáil will reconvene at 9am tomorrow and try again to elect the next Taoiseach.
If you are only tuning in now, here’s how today went in Leinster House.
Background:
Before getting into today, a reminder of where things stood on the row this morning.
In short: The Independent TDs who participated in government formation negotiations, but who have not been given junior ministerial positions, want to continue to sit as a technical group in the Dáil and be allowed some of the speaking time that is allocated to the Opposition.
These four TDs are Michael Lowry, Barry Heneghan, Gillian Toole and Danny Healy-Rae.
Fundamentally, the row (which began last week) is over the interpretation of Dáil standing orders, these are basically the rules that govern how the Dáil operates. The Ceann Comhairle is responsible for enforcing the standing orders.
Almost all of the Opposition TDs in the Dáil are on one side of the issue, while the Regional Independents Group, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are on the other.
The issue was kicked up to the Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy to interpret the standing orders. Yesterday, she decided that the four TDs would be able to sit in the technical group on an interim basis until she made a final decision.
Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats, Independent Ireland and People Before Profit all said that the situation is absurd and argued that these Independents are not part of the Opposition and therefore should not be given some of the Opposition’s speaking time.
The Dáil suspended – twice
That brings us to today.
This morning, the Dáil returned at 11am and Opposition TDs immediately made their disquiet clear.
Much shouting ensued – read all about that here – and the Dáil was suspended by the Ceann Comhairle for 15 minutes.
Upon its return, the shouting continued. The Dáil was back for less than two minutes and had to be suspended again.
After about an hour, the Dáil returned and government chief whip Hildegarde Naughton requested another recess of 45 minutes to allow party representatives to meet and then consult with their own parties afterwards.
This was agreed, but after the meeting there was no resolution – “absolute stalemate”.
At this stage, government sources were still hopeful that the situation would be resolved today.
During this recess Michael Lowry took to the plinth to update the media.
He said most parties and independents have agreed that the speaking rights issue should be referred to the Reform Committee tomorrow, in a bid to get back on track today and elect a Taoiseach.
Shortly after this there was another update – Aontú (who were in the Regional Group but not supporting government) had left the technical group.
Aontú leader Peadar Toibín said he did so in the hope of breaking the “impasse”.
However, the two other non-government supporting Independents TDs in the group, Mattie McGrath and Carol Nolan, were still in the group.
The Dáil then returned just after 4pm and the understanding was that a compromise had been reached by all parties.
However, when Naughton stood up in the Dáil outlining this and the Ceann Comhairle then attempted to begin the process of the vote on Taoiseach, Sinn Féin TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn interjected to say nothing had been agreed.
*At this point, the press did not have clarity on what had been agreed or not – this would only become clear when both sides set out their positions later in the evening in separate press conferences.
Shouting ensued again and opposition TDs began to get to their feet.
TDs from the Labour Party began to make for the doors, but before a walk out could happen the Ceann Comhairle adjourned the Dáil for the day.
That was it – there would be no new Taoiseach today.
Shortly afterwards, Micheál Martin, Simon Harris, Hildegarde Naughten and Cormac Devlin spoke to the press outside Government Buildings.
Harris dubbed what happened “stunt politics on speed”, while Martin said what happened today was a “subversion of the Irish constitution”.
Naughton said her understanding was that an agreement was made between all parties before the Dáil reconvened at four.
“We shook hands on it,” she told the press.
About an hour later, Mary Lou McDonald and the other Opposition leaders spoke to the media on the plinth.
Their position was clear: They are united as one and are leaving the ball in the government’s court.
Tonight they will write to the leaders of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael along with the Ceann Comhairle to request a meeting.
But what about the hand shaking? Was there no agreement in the earlier meeting?
Sinn Féin TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn came forward to the mic and said again that no agreement had been reached and that members of the Opposition shook hands with the Clerk of the Dáil Peter Finnegan and thanked him for trying to facilitate an agreement.
People Before Profit leader Richard Boyd Barrett said: “At the very same time we were shaking hands with Peter Finnegan we were stating that there wasn’t an agreement”.
Both sides to the disagreement are accusing the other of acting in bad faith.
The Opposition say they will raise the same issues tomorrow if they do not receive clarity from government tonight.
For now, it looks as though tomorrow may be just as unproductive as today, unless there is a deal of some sort struck tonight.
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Not going to get a straight answer from them & anyway never mind about the 10% when are we going to see the rest fall back to where it was in jan 2022. They were still making plenty of profit and still gouging us but at least we had a chance of paying it. Electric Ireland have been putting their hands in our pockets for years it’s about time we cut it off. Some of us need electricity for water that’s the sad part of it. They don’t seem to understand that we have other bills to pay. They can’t come first every time. Most of us live pay-check to pay-check. We pay bills as we go, some months you just have to sit back and be quiet because we just don’t physically have the money to give you. And no amount of texts, phone calls and nasty letters will get you the money any faster.
Show me any other necessity of life that is subject to the whims of big business like the electricity supply. It should be protected like water is. Or at least the government should give a 100% grant to fit solar PV panels. The way it is now you have to have the cash to pay for it before you can get them. I don’t know about you lot but I don’t have a spare €15 never mind a spare €15,000-€20,000
@Colm O’Leary: Your smart phone and the price of pints.
@Don Hogan: Why do you presume to know other peoples circumstances? So many are struggling, lucky you if you are not one of them.
@Don Hogan: I don’t know what the price of pints has to do with anything I don’t drink and I haven’t been out to a pub in 5 years and my smartphone is the most basic model, I upgrade only when my old phone dies which is what happened to my last phone. An old iPhone 5 I kept it going long after apple had stopped supporting it.. so if your implying I’m living high on the hog then I’m not. I’m barely scraping by.
This is crazy, this is how we’re driving young people and not only young people just the population out of this country. The big companies are skyrocketing prices and giving us no hope. Record profits year on year, draining our pockets and filling theirs.
So we can read the usual nonsense rhetoric reply….why bother??
I would but had no electricity all morning can’t change my phone still get the bill on time
Bring the whole energy sector into public ownership, then each year have a price increase equal or less than CPI %. No complaints about price gouging then.
You are in government. You have the power to do something about it. You are more than well paid by the people of this country so do something for them for a change instead of just talking about it.
The business sector was hit with hikes before the residential. In June 22 i was paying on a retail unit 55c per unit. From an initial 21c when i had opened the account the July before COVID. I believe it’s fair they reduce it as the price hikes closed us down.. if it returns to normal we wight return as well ..
have your say