Dáil speaking rights: 'Root cause of this is the grubby deal with Michael Lowry', McDonald says

Vivienne Clarke

“The root cause of this is the grubby deal with Michael Lowry”, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said of the ongoing row over Dáil speaking times.

“It’s a terrible pity that it has come to this”, she told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland. The no confidence motion in the Ceann Comhairle was because of the agreement between Micheál Martin, Simon Harris, and Michael Lowry, she added.

Ms McDonald also said that a report by the Clerk of the Dáil into Tuesday afternoon’s sitting was “flawed” and there remained a question mark around how the order of business had been conducted.

“We can’t have a Ceann Comhairle that pushes the government agenda. There has to be impartiality.

"There had been a loss of confidence in the Ceann Comhairle across the Opposition benches," she said.

“It is a terrible, terrible pity that it has come to this. All of this is the result of the government deal struck between Micheál Martin and Simon Harris and Michael Lowry. That has been the seeds of each of these controversies, the farce of allowing government TDs to act as opposition TDs turning logic and democracy on its head.

“The fact that the Ceann Comhairle’s position itself was part and parcel of brokering that deal. The Ceann Comhairle herself has acknowledged that it was Michael Lowry who was the mechanism and the channel through which she came to that position. And in fairness, once elected to that position, she was given a fair wind by one and all in a spirit of fairness.

"And I had hoped that we would see impartiality and independence because that's at the heart of the Ceann Comhairle fulfilling their function and allowing all of us to get on with our work. But that, I am afraid, sadly, has now been decimated on the floor of the Dáil and we find ourselves at this sorry pass.”

When it was pointed out that the government was likely to defeat the no confidence motion, Ms McDonald was asked if that would be the end of the matter.

She said that there were many urgent issues that needed to be addressed such as housing and health, increasing crime and the need for greater community safety.

“This is the work that all of us want to be at. But for us to get to that place, there has to be a clear understanding that government exercises its prerogatives, that the opposition does its job.

"And you cannot have a Ceann Comhairle that clearly, as happened on Tuesday, comes into the chamber and acts simply to advance and to push through the government's agenda. That can't work.

"So we had, not just myself, but other leaders of the opposition had appealed to the Ceann Comhairle to really reflect on where we are at now. I think it's unprecedented that there is a confidence motion such as this signed across the opposition benches.”

With regard to an independent report by the Clerk of the Dáil into Tuesday’s proceedings, Ms McDonald said she had watched the video coverage and there was no question in her mind that the Clerk’s report was flawed.

“We have a situation where the live proceedings, which anybody can view and review, do not tally with the report that has been produced. So there is a question mark around the order of business itself.”

When asked if the Clerk’s report would be legally challenged, Ms McDonald said she would prefer not to and that the matter ought to be resolved in the Dáil itself. “Because in the end it is about how we democratically pursue our business. We shouldn't be in this place.

“This is my fourth Dáil term. Other colleagues have been in the Dáil longer than I and none of us can recall a situation as outrageous as this and it seems the government don't like to be held to account, do not wish to be challenged, will move heaven and earth to facilitate Michael Lowry for reasons that only they can understand and each of these clashes, each of the problems that we have faced, the root cause of this is that grubby deal to form the government between Micheál Martin, Simon Harris, and Michael Lowry.

"Those are the three authors of the chaos that we find ourselves in. It has to be resolved, of course, because we have to get on with the people's business.

“We want to get along with our work, but we cannot simply take a situation where the government moves every manoeuvre to minimise accountability and to create a farcical, a laughable situation where people can be in government and opposition at the same time.

"And now we have the additional problem that the Ceann Comhairle, with really indecent haste, moved along with government to ram through highly contentious provisions through the Dáil and in a way that do not tally with the good and orderly running of the chamber.

"And then there is that contradiction between a report produced in good faith by the clerk and the evidence and the live proceedings that any citizen can view.”