PARTY STRATEGY:THE GOVERNMENT has refused to set aside Dáil business next week to debate a Labour Party motion of no confidence in the Government.
While the issue is not covered under Dáil Standing Orders, it has been a long-standing precedent for the government to suspend normal business of the House to allow a motion of no confidence to be debated.
However yesterday evening the Government chief whip John Curran said no Government time would be made available for the motion.
He said it was just another “meaningless political stunt” and would waste time.
Labour also found itself at loggerheads with the other main Opposition party, Fine Gael, after leader Eamon Gilmore announcement yesterday it was tabling the motion.
Fine Gael described the motion as “ill-advised and badly-timed”, and criticised Labour for offering Fianna Fáil a chance to unite at a time of turmoil.
Mr Gilmore rejected the criticism, saying the focus needed to be on the Government ending rather than on an internal Fianna Fáil row.
He said if the Government refused to allow the motion to go ahead next week the party would use its Private Members’ Time to debate the motion the following week.
The government normally suspends House business to allow a motion of no confidence to be debated as a priority. It has been the custom for the government to table a counter-motion of confidence in itself.
The last motion of no confidence was tabled by Fine Gael in June last year, precipitating a leadership contest within the party.
The previous motion was one tabled by the Labour Party in 2000.
In both instances the business of the Dáil was suspended.
However, in a change from custom, Mr Curran said no Government time would be made available for the motion. “This is a shallow posturing approach to politics which does nothing to aid economic recovery.”
However, Mr Gilmore argued the opposite when announcing the motion on the plinth of Leinster House yesterday, flanked by a number of colleagues.
He said the motion would focus the minds of the public on the need for an immediate election and on the failure of the Green Party to fulfil its commitment for an early election.
He denied Labour was being opportunistic in tabling the motion while Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s leadership of Fianna Fáil was under scrutiny.
He said he had repeatedly requested a timetable from the Government which would make clear when the Finance Bill would be passed and a general election would be called.
He claimed a proposed date had been pushed further and further back by the Government.
“It was supposed to be in January, then at the end of March, now it seems it’ll be April, and if some other excuse is found it’ll drag on for longer than that,” he told reporters outside Leinster House yesterday.
When asked why he had tabled a motion of no confidence in the Government rather than the Taoiseach, Mr Gilmore said it was not about individuals.
He said debating such a motion would not be a waste of time as it had a good chance of being successful.
“The Green Party [leader John Gormley] said in the interest of civility that we needed the election of a new government before the end of January. So let’s hold him to his word.”
A spokesman for the Green Party in Government said Mr Gilmore had missed the point and that the party was leaving Government.
“We are not surprised by the Labour move. Once the Finance Bill is passed there will be a general election.”
A Fine Gael spokesman said there was no prospect the motion would succeed. “Engaging in an exercise like this is tokenism.”
He said if the Government tabled a counter-motion of confidence, Fine Gael would vote against it.
However in response Labour pointed out that the timing of the Fine Gael motion last June was far from ideal. Mr Gilmore said: “My judgment is that this needs to be brought to an end.”