'Your position is no longer tenable,' O'Donoghue told

LABOUR LEADER Eamon Gilmore directly confronted Ceann Comhairle John O’Donoghue and told him and a stunned Dáil that he would either have to resign or be removed from office.

His party would be tabling a motion of no confidence, Mr Gilmore confirmed.

During Leaders’ Questions, Mr Gilmore told the Taoiseach that he was “particularly disappointed” that Brian Cowen had failed to agree to a meeting of party leaders to discuss the controversy surrounding Mr O’Donoghue’s expenses.

Mr Cowen, however, believed that the appropriate forum was the meeting of the Oireachtas Commission today.

Mr Gilmore disagreed and said the Dáil elected the Ceann Comhairle and the commission dealt with administration.

Then, directly addressing Mr O’Donoghue in the Ceann Comhairle’s chair, Mr Gilmore said to a stunned silence in the chamber: “Cheann Chomhairle, I regret to say this but I consider that your position is no longer tenable. I think you will either have to resign or I think you will have to have be removed from office and, following the order of business today, it is my intention to meet my colleagues in the Labour parliamentary party and to recommend to them the tabling of a motion of no confidence in you.”

Remaining impassive the Ceann Comhairle said just “thank you Deputy Gilmore” then turned to call the Taoiseach for his formal reply.

Mr Cowen said: “I was very much of the view that the Ceann Comhairle be given an opportunity to put his view, his proposals to the commission, which is meeting tomorrow. I felt that would be in keeping with the independence of his office and he should be afforded an opportunity to do so.”

None of the six Green Party TDs was in the chamber for Mr Gilmore’s dramatic call.

The Labour leader told the House it was an unacceptable “pattern of extravagance”.

He said that recognising the office of Ceann Comhairle as above politics, “I felt it was not something that should be done unilaterally or in a partisan way”, so he had written to all party leaders seeking a meeting to discuss the matter but was “particularly disappointed” that the Taoiseach had refused such a meeting.

He then asked Mr Cowen “if you and the parties in Government continue to have confidence in Mr O’Donoghue as Ceann Chomhairle”.

The Taoiseach replied: “It is greatly to be regretted that the issues was brought to the House in this way. I have said to the deputy that I believe that the meeting tomorrow of the Oireachtas Commission” was the appropriate forum and they should wait for Mr O’Donoghue’s proposals to the commission.

“It is important that the confidence of the House in the Ceann Comhairle can be confirmed on the basis of a discussion and decisions that should be taken at that commission meeting.”

Mr Gilmore said: “I did not want to bring this issue on to the floor of the House at all,” but the commission was “essentially an in-house committee which deals with the administration of the House. It meets in private, it’s not a political body in the sense that there is political accountability to it.”

He said the Ceann Comhairle “is elected by the members of this House” and it was a matter for the Dáil to deal with it.