Traditional three-month Dáil break cut by about four weeks

FURTHER DÁIL reforms were agreed yesterday as the House adjourned for the shortest summer recess in years.

The House will return on Wednesday, September 14th, reducing the traditional three-month break by about four weeks.

Responding to Opposition demands for an extra sitting to discuss yesterday’s EU summit, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said Tuesday’s meeting of the Oireachtas Finance Committee which was considering it would be held in the Dáil Chamber to allow all TDs interested to attend.

Ceann comhairle Seán Barrett said a decision by the Committee on Procedure and Privileges requiring TDs to dress in keeping with the dignity of the House still stood. Its implementation depended on if and when a motion to change the existing code, correct it or give it a proper meaning was introduced.

Government chief whip Paul Kehoe said members would return to the House in the autumn with new rules and improved procedures. “They will return to a Dáil better equipped to hold the executive to account, a Dáil that has started to turn back the tide and to recover some of the power it has been losing to the executive for over a decade.”

Among the reforms were a provision whereby members could raise topical issues with a Minister in the middle of the sitting day. This would replace the adjournment debates which were seen as an afterthought to Dáil business.

Opposition leaders’ questions would be taken by Mr Gilmore on Thursdays, he said. By increasing the weekly allocation of these questions by 50 per cent, the Government was providing the Opposition parties with an opportunity to hold the Government to account.

There would be Friday sittings to allow TDs introduce their own legislation.

Seán Ó Fearghail (FF) said while his party was unhappy with some elements of the reform package, it would not oppose it as it saw merit in some proposals.

No single measure proposed marked a radical departure on how the Dáil conducted business and a wide swathe of the promises contained in Fine Gael and Labour policy were nowhere to be seen.