AS A RESULT of the row about speaking rights for the Regional Independent TDs, committees like PAC will not be able to scrutinise the work of public bodies until late April/early May. 

This will make it almost seven months since Ireland’s parliament has been functioning fully, before November’s general election campaign.

Without Dáil committees, legislation cannot progress, and important scrutiny powers are not available to TDs.

Both the Government and Opposition are blaming each other for the delay.

After proposed changes to Dáil standing orders were approved by the Dáil Reform Committee last week, the Dáil now must vote on the changes. 

This vote cannot take place until after St Patrick’s Day due to rules that govern when a motion can be placed before the Dáil.

The Opposition side, which is made up of Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats, People Before Profit and Independent Ireland, say they put forward a solution at last week’s meeting that would have allowed for committees to get up and running in the interim.

On the other side, the Government say a proposal was “briefly” suggested but slapped down by the Ceann Comhairle, who said it was not possible without resolving the speaking issue.

A source on the Government side maintains that the establishment of committees will take place “in the coming couple of weeks”. 

However, the Dáil will sit only for three weeks between St Patrick’s Day and the two-week break TDs’ get over Easter, leaving little time for committees to get into substantive business.

The first two meetings of a committee after its establishment are usually focused on electing a chair and then setting out a programme.

Another question mark that hangs over the committees is where the four Regional Independent TDs who participated in the programme for government but who do not have ministerial positions (Michael Lowry, Barry Henegan, Danny Healy Rae and Gillian Toole), will be allocated committee seats from – the Government slots or Opposition slots? 

A Government source told The Journal that any committee membership for these four TDs will be given from the Government side.

Escalation 

In response to the Government ramming through its proposed changes against the will of the Opposition, the five main Opposition parties have collectively withdrawn pairing arrangements with the Government.

Pairing arrangements are an informal deal between TDs where if a member is not present in the Dáil, an opposing member abstains from voting to balance out their absence, and vice-versa.

The five Opposition leaders have requested to meet with Michéal Martin and Simon Harris, a request that has been refused.

The Opposition side has consistently said they are united against the Government’s actions in relation to this and that “all options” remain on the table in response.

Some have even suggested that they would refuse to engage in the committee process, a move that would further delay the parliament getting fully back to work. 

Privately, though, the parties differ on this. Some have said they would not like to push that button for fear they would lose the public’s support the longer this drags on.

On the Government side, a crack has also been visible between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. 

One Fine Gael source told The Journal that the entire issue was not handled well and accepted that “the comms could have been better”.

A source on the Opposition side said that in earlier meetings about the speaking rights row, Simon Harris and then-Government chief whip Hildegarde Naughton were “very eager” to find a solution and that Micheál Martin was the one unwilling to compromise.

A different Opposition source told The Journal that while the Government looks likely to get their way on this, behind the scenes, any professionalism that existed between the Government and Opposition is now “gone”. 

They said the relationships are going to be “extremely bad” for the duration of this Dáil term.