The Government made an embarrassing climbdown yesterday when it was forced to drop the controversial legislative amendment banning opinion polls in the last week of an election.
The Government conceded last night that the proposal was now dead. It had hoped the Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2000 would have completed all stages in the Oireachtas by yesterday, but instead it will have to return to the Dail in October following the summer recess.
This means that a number of other measures in the Bill, being introduced in advance of a general election, will not now go ahead until the autumn. These include the capping of corporate donations, the increase in the amount of money which political parties can spend in an election campaign, and an increase in funding to political parties for administration purposes.
The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, who was standing in for the Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Bobby Molloy, admitted in the Seanad that there had been a "misjudgment" in dealing with the matter. "We got it wrong, although our intentions and concerns were possibly right," he said.
The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, said afterwards there had been a loophole in the Bill which had not been identified during drafting. It had come to light during examination in the Seanad by Independent Senator Shane Ross and others, she said.
"We would have been very irresponsible to proceed with a piece of legislation that clearly would have been unworkable. It would have allowed polls taken eight days before an election to be published on the day of an election, as well as exit polls to be taken and published that day."
The loophole was discovered by Mr Ross on Tuesday night after almost six hours of debate in the Seanad. The Fianna Fail Seanad leader, Mr Donie Cas sidy, proposed that deliberation on the legislation be suspended until 2 p.m. yesterday to consider Mr Ross's amendments.
It was decided at the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday morning to drop the controversial proposal. Even though it was the discovery of the loophole which delayed the passage of the Bill in the Seanad, a Government spokesman insisted the plan was to abandon the proposal anyway. He said the Government felt that once there was no longer all-party consensus, it did not wish to proceed with it.
The Government Chief Whip, Mr Seamus Brennan, said there was a number of reasons why the Government had withdrawn the proposal. It had been put forward originally by Fine Gael at the committee stage of the Bill two weeks ago and supported at that time by the Labour Party.
Mr Molloy, he said, had specifically asked the party spokes people if they were speaking for their party. The Opposition had then had an "extraordinary change of heart". The second reason, he said, was the "technical point" made by Mr Ross.
Initially yesterday, Government sources said the Bill would not have to be returned to the Dail, despite the decision to drop the opinion poll amendment, a situation they wished to avoid since it would be politically embarrassing and delay the introduction of the other measures. However, they said subsequently that according to Oireachtas rules it would have to return to the lower house in the autumn because it had been changed in the Seanad.
Bill on polls "misjudged": page 6; Poll ban move turns out to be another fine mess: page 14